Super AND Blue Full Moon Walk
at Sacred Coldwater Springs
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
Gather at the park entrance, 7 pm
Park on the Hwy 55 access road
Super and Blue moon—WOW, a celestial treat! The full moons called “super” occur when the Moon’s orbit (which is not a perfect circle) is relatively closer to the Earth, only 221,942 miles away from us on this day, appearing bigger and (30-percent) brighter than usual.
A blue moon is called when two full moons occur in one month. The song Blue Moon was written by 17-year-old Edward W. Roman in 1931, a first-generation American son of Polish immigrants, not by Rodgers and Hart as popularly believed. The song is a standard recorded by Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and Bob Dylan among others.
Here are the lyrics for our serenade to Coldwater Spring. Please practice.
Blue moon, you saw me standing alone, without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own. Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for, you heard me saying a prayer for, someone I really could care for.
And then, there suddenly appeared before me, the only one my arms will ever hold, I heard somebody whisper” Please, adore me,” and when I looked, the moon had turned to gold. Blue moon, now, I’m no longer alone, without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
Friends of Coldwater are grateful that the spring still flows although down from 144,000 gallons per day before the Highway 55 reroute in the 1990s to about 66,000 gpd. Water is what climate change is all about: floods, droughts, warming oceans and devastating storms.
Coldwater is an acknowledged Dakota sacred site. Friends of Coldwater seek to honor our 11,000-year-old landscape ancestor. We return and return to remember the spirits that feed this Indigenous sacred site.
Full moon walks have been celebrated at Coldwater Springs each month since 2000. Traditional group howl when the moon peeks out.
Sunset 7:54 pm (46-minutes earlier than last full moon) The days are shortening.
Moonrise 8:11 pm (2-hours and 10-minutes earlier than last month)
Moment of the full moon: 8:35 pm
Raindrops take 8-minutes traveling at 14.5 mph to fall to Earth from 10,000-feet.
DIRECTIONS: Coldwater Springs is between Minnehaha Park & Fort Snelling, in Minneapolis, just North of the Hwy 55/62 interchange. From Hwy 55/Hiawatha, turn East (toward the Mississippi) at 54th Street, take an immediate right, & drive all the way down the frontage road where you can park at the pay meters.
Gather at the cul-de-sac, which is the Coldwater Park entrance.
Free. All welcome.