Here's a little essay/explanation on what is happening, according to some forwarded email I got from another 'Catter:

Subject: Last Full Moon of 1999
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 12:57:06 -0800

Millennium Dance

The Sun, Moon and Earth create a Y2K, Cosmic Style! by Bob Berman

"A better time to celebrate a truly once in a thousand year event arrives some nine days earlier than the official end of the millennium.

This year's December 22 winter solstice coincides with a full moon - a combination that happens only every 3 decades or so...But that's not the only celestial oddity for the day. The moon also reaches perigee, its closest point to the Earth. So this solstice, which brings together the year's lowest sun and longest night, comes at the same time as the closest moon - and a full moon to boot.

The last time the full moon, lunar perigee, and winter solstice fell on the same day was in 1866. But even then the moon merely reached its closest approach of the month. On this December 22, the moon will be at its nearest point of the year. It's the kind of event that would have driven "primitive" (his quote, not mine) cultures bonkers!!

And believe it or not, there's more. The day of Earth's maximal tilt (when the axis is directed most fully away from the sun) will also combine with a very CLOSE sun... which reaches its nearest point to the earth, 12 days later. The confluence of all these forces at "the very least" will brew up huge proxigean tides, also called "closest of the close moon" tides. They will extend a few, but crucial, inches farther then normal, ranging from reaching the boardwalk highs to lows that uncover rarely exposed marine life. If you add a low pressure storm at sea scenario to this day, unusually strong tides could go over the edge and even earthquakes occur more often during strong tide effects.

The cosmic culprits responsible for all this drama - the moon and sun occupy opposite ends of the sky on December 21- 22. A full moon will rise just as the sun goes down in its leftmost position of the year along the horizon. This exceptionally plump moon will seem a full 14% wider then than it appeared at apogee, its farthest point from the Earth.

Long ago and early on in the experience of using calendars, years end always coincided with the winter solstice. That changed during the switch from the Julian to the more accurate Gregorian calendar, beginning in the sixteenth century. What seems to have been lost was a much more appropriate time, from a celestial point of view, to celebrate the passing of 1,000 years ...on December 22, when the sun, moon and Earth perform a truly, genuinely, once in a millennium dance."

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