Full Moon April 2026: the Pink Moon in Libra

Detail	April 2026 full moon
Date, US	Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Time, US Eastern	10:12 p.m. EDT
Time, UTC	02:12 UTC, April 2
Moon sign	Libra, about 12 degrees
Sun opposite	Aries
Traditional name	Pink Moon
Eclipse	none
Next new moon	April 17, 7:52 a.m. EDT, in Aries
Next full moon	May 1 in Scorpio
All 2026 full moons	Full moon 2026 calendar

A late evening full moon on April 1

At 10:12 p.m. Eastern the Moon was well up in the southeast and fully round, and on the Pacific coast it was 7:12 p.m., with the Moon just clearing the horizon. It was the first full moon after the March equinox of March 20, and the first since clocks moved to daylight saving time on March 8.

This also makes April 2026 a good example of why a single date can be wrong for half the world. Anyone reading a European calendar in the US would have looked for the full moon one night late. The lunar calendar avoids that by turning the moment into your own local time.

Where the Pink Moon name comes from

The traditional April name points to the first spring wildflowers, usually identified as moss pink or creeping phlox, that color fields in North America around this time. The Moon itself keeps its normal color. The Pink Moon is one name among many in an almanac list that changes from region to region, and astronomy has no use for it.

Astronomy and interpretation

In plain astronomical terms, the Moon sat at about 12 degrees of Libra in the tropical zodiac. The Sun stood opposite in Aries, which had just started the zodiac year at the equinox.

Astrologers read that opposition as a first test of the year's fresh plans. Aries, the Sun's sign, is drive, independence and starting things. Libra, holding the full moon, is partnership, harmony and the habit of weighing both sides. A Libra full moon is traditionally read as a moment when the needs of a relationship push back against what you want for yourself, and when a fair compromise counts for more than a quick win.

Mercury had come out of its first retrograde of the year on March 20, and its shadow period lasted until April 9. This full moon fell inside that shadow, a stretch tradition reads as a time to tie up loose ends from the retrograde. Retrograde planets 2026 covers how astrologers read those phases.

Finding the Pink Moon in your chart

Open your birth chart and look for 12 degrees of Libra. The house it falls in names where the full moon shone, and the opposite house, holding mid Aries, tells you where your own push came from. A Sun, Moon or rising sign near that degree of Libra, Aries, Cancer or Capricorn made the contact personal. If you are not sure what your Moon placement says, what your moon sign means walks through it.

The neighbors

This full moon closed the cycle of the new moon on March 18 in Pisces, and the next new moon, on April 17 in Aries, opened a new one. The previous full moon was the March 2026 full moon, the total lunar eclipse in Virgo. The next one was the first of two in May, on May 1 in Scorpio, covered in full moon May 2026.