Thursday, December 11, 2008

Full Moons - They have names, all of them.

I noticed when walking the dog this morning that it was a full moon.

The December full moon is called the Oak Moon,

or the Cold Moon, Snow Moon, Moon Before Yule, Peach Moon, Twelfth Moon, Christmas Moon, Margashirsha Poornima or finally the Bitter Moon.

It really depends on background or how you look at the moon.

Initially, I though that only a few moons had names, e.g. Blue, Harvest and Hunters. But in doing a little search on the web I found that my view was pretty narrow. It appears that there were some cultures in old Europe that named moons, namely the Celts and English, but the named moons really took off once the Native Americans came into the picture. This may have been from use of numeric systems for calendars in Europe or the closeness on Native Americans to the environment that they lived, but I really don't know and I didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

It also appears that moons had names in other areas also, many more, then you will see, I have captured.

Here is a partial list of moon names and the cultures that used them. I plagiarized this list from multiple sources, so in today's world I think it can be classified as actual research at this point.

The Dakotah Sioux names are some of the most interesting when thinking about what had to happen (scale/scope) in order for the moon to be named after the described events.

Lets start with the old Europe moon names:

Month English English Medieval Celtic
January Old Moon Wolf Moon Quite Moon
February Wolf Moon Storm Moon Moon of Ice
March Lenten Moon Chaste Moon Moon of Winds
April Egg Moon Seed Moon Growing Moon
May Milk Moon Hare Moon Bright Moon
June Flower Moon Dyan Moon Moon of Horses
July Hay Moon Mead Moon Moon of Claiming
August Grain Moon Corn Moon Dispute Moon
September Fruit Moon Barley Moon Singing Moon
October Harvest Moon Blood Moon Harvest Moon
November Hunter's Moon Snow Moon Dark Moon
December Oak Moon Oak Moon Cold Moon
But they really get interesting and descriptive when the Native American moon names are added but what follows is only a partial list:
Month Native American** Cherokee Ottewell (Cherokee)


January Wolf Moon Cold Moon Moon After Yule


February Snow Moon Bony Moon



March Worm Moon Windy Moon Lenten


April Pink Moon Flower Moon Egg


May Flower Moon Planting Moon



June Strawberry Moon Green Corn Moon Flower


July Buck Moon Ripe Corn Moon Hay


August Sturgeon Moon Fruit Moon Grain


September Harvest Moon Nut Moon



October Hunter's Moon Harvest Moon Hunter's


November Beaver Moon Trading Moon Hunter's


December Cold Moon Snow Moon Moon Before Yule


And more:
Month Choctaw Dakotah Sioux Algonquin / Colonial
January Cooking Moon Moon of the Terrible Old
February Little Famine Moon Moon of the Raccoon,
Moon When Trees Pop
Hunger
March Big Famine Moon Moon When Eyes Are Sore from Bright Snow Crust
April Wildcat Moon Moon When Geese Return in Scattered Formation Pink
May Panther Moon Moon When Leaves Are Green,
Moon To Plant
Flower
June Windy Moon Moon When June Berries Are Ripe Rose
July Crane Moon Moon of the Middle Summer Buck
August Women's Moon Moon When All Things Ripen Sturgeon
September Mulberry Moon Moon When The Calves Grow Hair Harvest
October Blackberry Moon Moon When Quilling and Beading is Done Hunter's
November Sassafras Moon Moon When Horns Are Broken Off Beaver
December Peach Moon Twelfth Moon Cold
And here is what started to happen when the old Europe and Native American names started to merge:
Month Colonial American
January Winter Moon
February Trapper's Moon
March Fish Moon
April Planter's Moon
May Milk Moon
June Rose Moon
July Summer Moon
August Dog Day's Moon
September Harvest Moon
October Hunter's Moon
November Beaver Moon
December Christmas Moon
And not to leave out the rest of the world:
Month Hindu Names Chinese New Guinea




January Paush Poornima Holiday Moon Rainbow Fish Moon




February Magh Poornima Budding Moon Parriotfish Moon




March Holi Sleepy Moon Palolo Worm Moon




April Hanuman Jayanti Peony Moon Flying Fish Moon




May Buddha Poornima Dragon Moon Black Trevally Moon




June Wat Poornima Lotus Moon Open Sea Moon




July Guru Poornima Hungry Ghost Moon Tiger Shark Moon




August Narali Poornima, Raksha bandhan Harvest Moon Rain & Wind Moon




September Bhadrapad Poornima Chrysanthemum Moon





October Kojagiri or Sharad Poornima Kindly Moon





November Kartik Poornima White Moon





December Margashirsha Poornima Bitter Moon





And here are the non-regional names:

Month Wiccan Neo Pagan Seasonal* Un-Named #1 Other
January Wolf Ice Moon winter 1st - Moon after Yule Old
February Storm Snow Moon winter 2nd -Wolf Moon Snow Candles Moon;
Magpie
March Chaste Death Moon winter last - Lenten Moon Sap Sap; Crow; Sugar; Crow
April Seed Awakening Moon spring 1st - Egg, Easter, or Paschal Moon Grass Grass(Sprouting);
Moon of the Red Grass Appearing;
Fish;
Waking
May Hare Grass Moon spring 2nd - Milk Moon Milk Corn Planting; Corn
June Dyad Planting Moon spring last - Flower Moon Rose Honey, Hot
July Mead Rose Moon summer 1st - Hay Moon Thunder Thunder
August Wyrt Lightening Moon summer 2nd - Grain Moon Green Corn Red;
Corn;
Green Corn; Dog
September Barley Harvest Moon summer last - Fruit Moon Fruit Corn
October Blood Blood Moon autumn 1st - Harvest Moon Harvest Travel;
Dying Grass
November Snow Tree Moon autumn 2nd - Hunter's Moon Frost Frosty
December Oak Long Night Moon autumn last - Moon before Yule Long Night Moon Before Yule;
Frost
And what about a "Blue Moon"? Here is some interesting trivia from Space and Telescope:

When is the Moon 'blue,' in a calendar sense?

According to the Maine almanac, a Blue Moon occurs when a season has four full Moons, rather than the usual three. This type of Blue Moon is found only in February, May, August, and November, one month before the next equinox or solstice.

According to modern folklore, a Blue Moon is the second full Moon in a calendar month. This type of Blue Moon can occur in any month but February, which is always shorter than the time between successive full Moons.

So pick whether you want to follow folklore or the almanac.

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