The grass pink or wild ground phlox is one of the earliest widespread flowers of spring. Other names were the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and -- among coastal tribes -- the Full Fish Moon, when the shad came upstream to spawn.

In 2003, this will be the first full Moon of spring, hence it is also the Paschal Full Moon. The feast of Passover begins at sundown on this night and the first Sunday following the first full Moon of spring (April 20) is designated as Easter Sunday.

Lastly, the Moon will arrive at perigee at 1:00 a.m. on April 17, at a distance of 221,937 miles (355,987) kilometers from Earth. Very high tides can be expected from the near- coincidence of perigee with Full Moon (referred to as an astronomical spring tide).