It celebrated the first cut of the harvest - the weather was settling down and the hay was ready. The earliest wheat was ready to be cut, none of this two crops in one season here, and it meant that there was about 6 weeks of hard work before everthing was gathered in, and you could sit down and do the winter jobs. That's why there are harvest moons in September - the extra light of a large full moon meant that you could carry on the farm work, at a time when the weather could break at any time, and time was of the essence.

LTS