We’ve been pretty unplugged lately, so we’re not sure how much this is being hyped, but just in case you haven’t heard about it, be sure to go out and view the moon this Sunday night.

Sunday, September 27th, 2015 is a full moon, and the date of this year’s Chinese Moon Festival (also called Mid-Autumn Festival) — which is also celebrated in Vietnam and Japan (and elsewhere in Asia, too) with moon gazing and the eating of special foods, such as round white dumplings in Japan or in China, the famous moon cakes.

As a bonus, this year’s full moon is extra special, being a super moon, and blood moon/partial eclipse. All of this lunar magnificence is enough to even get us Westerners outside and gazing at the moon.

I like the idea of all of us looking up at the sky on Sunday night, connected as a human family, united in pondering the beauty of the universe and the elegant cycles of the natural world.

Maybe this year we can all celebrate a moon festival of our own, even if this isn’t part of our usual cultural tradition. Instead of moon cakes and dumplings, we could make some other kind of celebratory food–I’m thinking about making some little round crepes with red berry sauce to celebrate the blood moon.

Or perhaps our new traditions won’t involve food, but crafts, or songs, or copious toasting–or maybe we can just all stand outside and howl at the moon. It would do us some good, I think.

What is a blood moon anyway, you ask? It’s a moon stained red by the Earth’s shadow.

What’s a super moon? It’s a full moon which is as close to Earth as it can be in its elliptical orbit, making it appear extra large in the sky.

For more authoritative information on this lunar event, and for best viewing times and the like, check out Sky & Telescope. Erik is a big astronomy geek, and he gives Sky & Telescope a double thumbs up.

And as for us, we’ll be out on the porch Sunday night, thinking of all you guys.