Full Moon – Thursday, 8th December

December’s Full Moon is aptly known as the Cold Moon. It will look its’ largest on Wednesday night as it is at its fullest at 04.08am on Thursday. Sunrise is at 7:52am on 8th December, so the best time to see the Cold Moon will be between 4am and 7am, as it lingers low on the horizon in a pre-dawn sky. The Moon will then slip below the horizon at 8:29am.

Other names that indicate the cold and snow given to this Full Moon are:

Drift Clearing Moon (Cree),
Frost Exploding Trees Moon (Cree),
Moon of the Popping Trees (Oglala),
Hoar Frost Moon (Cree),
Snow Moon (Haida, Cherokee),
Winter Maker Moon (Western Abenaki)
Moon When the Deer Shed Their Antlers (Dakota)
Little Spirit Moon (Anishinaabe).

This Full Moon has also been called the Long Night Moon (Mohican), as it rises during the “longest” nights of the year, which are near the December winter solstice.

In Europe, ancient pagans called the December Full Moon the “Moon Before Yule,” in honour of the Yuletide festival celebrating the return of the sun heralded by winter solstice.

Here are the Full Moon dates for 2023:

Full Moon date and time	Full Moon name
6th January (11.07pm)	Wolf Moon
5th February (6.28pm)	Snow Moon
7th March (12.40pm)	Worm Moon
6th April (5.34am)	Pink Moon
5th May (6.34pm)	Flower Moon
4th June (4.41am)	Strawberry Moon
3rd July (12.38pm)	Buck Moon
1st August (7.31pm) 31st August (2.35am)	Sturgeon Moon Blue Moon
29th September (10.57am)	Corn/Harvest Moon
8th October (9.24pm)	Hunter’s Moon
27th November (9.16am)	Beaver Moon
27th December (12.33am)	Cold Moon

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Full Moon – Tuesday, 8th November

The November Full Moon, known as the Beaver Moon, will be at its fullest at 11.02am so will look its fullest on Monday night.

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans of North America. There was some variation in the Full Moon names, but in general, the same ones were consistent among regional tribes – those who rely on Full Moon periods to track crops and harvest.

This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. In the 1760s, Captain Jonathan Carver heard this Native American term during his travels.

The brightness of the Full Moon is when the Sun and the Moon are aligned on opposite sides of Earth, and 100% of the Moon’s face is illuminated by the Sun.

It is time to come back down to Earth. Time to settle down. Time to regroup, find your feet and ground yourself back into what’s important to you, what works for you, and what you want in life.

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Full Moon – Saturday, 10th September

Rising just after 8pm on Saturday evening, the Full Moon will brighten our skies. While September’s Full Moon is usually known as the Harvest Moon, if October’s Full Moon happens to occur closer to the autumnal equinox (September 23rd) than September’s, it takes on the name “Harvest Moon” instead. In this case, September’s Full Moon is referred to as the Corn Moon.

A transitional time between summer and autumn – many of the names (with the associated tribe) for this Full Moon reflects this:

Autumn Moon (Cree)
Falling Leaves Moon (Ojibwe)
Leaves Turning Moon (Anishinaabe)
Moon of Brown Leaves (Lakota)
Yellow Leaf Moon (Assiniboine)

Other Indian tribes would refer to this moon as:

Moon When the Plums Are Scarlet (Lakota Sioux)
Moon When the Deer Paw the Earth (Omaha)
Moon When the Calves Grow Hair (Sioux)

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Full Moon – Friday, 12th August

August’s Full Moon is on Friday, 12th August at 02.36hrs so will appear slightly larger and brighter on Thursday evening. It is the final Supermoon of 2022.

This lunation is known as the Sturgeon Moon. This is because the giant sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were most readily caught during this part of summer.

The Sturgeon Moon is also referred to as:

Full Green Corn Moon, signalling that the corn was nearly ready for harvest.
Grain Moon,
Fruit Moon,
Barley Moon,
Wheat Cut Moon
Blueberry Moon.

August also brings us the most popular meteor shower of the year. As our planet rotates the sun, every August, the Earth crashes into a cloud of debris left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle. As the debris burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere, it produces the meteor shower that we call the Perseids.

The Perseid meteor shower gets its name as it appears to come out of the constellation Perseus. They can appear from any part of the sky, so the more sky you can see the better.
They are active now and set to peak on 13th August. Enjoy!

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Full Moon – Wednesday, 13th July

The July Full Moon falls on Wednesday, 13th July at 7.38pm. It is also a Supermoon: the closest, brightest Full Moon you’ll see this year.

Commonly called the Buck Moon (because the antlers of male deer (bucks) are in full-growth mode at this time), it is also known as the Thunder Moon, or Hay Moon. Traditionally, each full Moon name was applied to the entire lunar month in which it occurred, not solely to the Full Moon.

The indigenous Ojibwe people of the Great Lakes region call this Moon the Halfway Summer Moon, or the Raspberry Moon.
The Cherokees call it the Corn in Tassel Moon.
The Cree Nation of central Canada calls the Full Moon the Feather Moulting Moon
The Mohawks call it the Fruits are Ripened Moon.

Because the Moon is full when it is opposite the sun in the sky, Full Moons always rise in the east as the sun is setting, and set in the west at sunrise. Since sunlight is striking the Moon vertically at that time, no shadows are cast; all of the variations in brightness you see arise from differences in the reflectivity of the lunar surface rocks 🙂

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Full Strawberry Moon – 14th June

Today’s Full Moon is also known as the Strawberry Moon, being the time of year for ripening strawberries.

There are many different names for the Full Moons experienced each year. Usually they’re not based on a colour, but on a common activity that takes place that time of year:

Blooming Moon is indicative of the flowering season.
Green Corn Moon and Hoer Moon suggest that it’s time to tend to young crops.
Birth Moon, referring to the time when certain animals are born in their region.
Egg Laying Moon and Hatching Moon are Cree terms that also hint at a time of many animal babies.
Honey Moon
Mead Moon

June was traditionally the month for marriages – it is even named after the Roman goddess of marriage, Juno. Following marriage comes the “honeymoon,” which give may give credence to one of this Full Moon’s names.

This is the second Supermoon of the year – Supermoons are often known to appear slightly larger than a normal Full Moon, up to 30% brighter and 17% larger, but in reality it seem to appear much the same, observed as a bright orb casting a slight golden tint.

The Summer Solstice is next Tuesday, 21st June.

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Full Moon & Eclipse – Monday, 16th May

The first lunar eclipse of 2022 occurs with Monday’s Full Moon.

The eclipse will happen in the early hours before dawn, as the Moon is low on the horizon, and the Moon will take on an increasingly red colour as totality approaches.
Totality of the eclipse is at 4:29am, Monday morning, but weather permitting, early risers will be rewarded with a bright brownish-red Moon before it descends below the horizon just after 5am.

Other names attributed to this Moon full of the promise of summer are:

Leaf Budding Moon
Planting Moon
Egg Laying Moon
Field Making Moon
Frog Moon
Moon Of The Shedding Ponies!

Next month on 14th June 2022, the Strawberry Moon will be the first Supermoon of 2022.

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Full Moon – Saturday, 16th April

The Full Moon is when the Sun and the Moon are aligned on opposite sides of Earth, and 100% of the Moon’s face is illuminated by the Sun.

This month’s Full Moon is at 19.56hrs. on Saturday, 16th April and is known as the ‘Pink Moon‘.

It is also the Paschal Full Moon. Simply speaking, the Paschal Full Moon is the first full Moon after the Spring Equinox. This Moon can sometimes occur in March and sometimes in April. The first Sunday after April’s full moon is celebrated as Easter Sunday. It’s possible that the reason why the Easter Bunny brings eggs is because April’s Full Moon is also known as the Egg Moon, given that animals such as geese begin mating and laying eggs in Spring.

This name is not because the Moon will be pink in colour. It comes from the pink moss, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the Spring in North America. Other names for this month’s Full Moon, all of which indicate the season, include:

Full Sprouting Grass Moon
Egg Moon
Full Fish Moon, among coastal tribes because this was the time that the fish swam upstream to spawn.

At the same time, April is a time when rivers and streams begin to fully thaw. Accordingly, April’s Full moon was:

Full Melting Moon, by the Shoshone tribe.
Moon Where Ice Breaks in the River, by the Arapaho tribe.
Sugar Maker Moon, by the Abenaki tribes
Sugarbush Moon, by the Ojibwe tribe. The Ojibwe tribe would journey north to their spring camps to tap maple syrup and engage in spear fishing. Maple syrup was integral to Ojibwe culture: not only was it a crucial method of seasoning all their foods (they did not have access to salt at that time), but it also symbolized harmony within the community and with the forces of nature around them.

In other religions:

In Islamic communities around the world, April’s full moon is celebrated as Bara’at Night, also known as the Night of Innocence. Muslims offer up prayers, asking their God to absolve dead ancestors of their sins. They also prepare sweet desserts such as halva or zarda and give it out to children, the needy, and other members of their community.

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Full Moon – Friday, 18th March

March’s Full Moon is known as the Worm Moon, which was originally thought to refer to the earthworms that appear as the soil thaws in Spring. This itself leads to the appearance of robins, chats and other worm eating birds.

An alternative explanation for this name comes from Captain Jonathan Carver, an 18th-century explorer, who wrote that this Moon name refers to a different sort of “worm”—beetle larvae—which begin to emerge from the thawing bark of trees and other winter hideouts at this time.

There are other names for this particular Full Moon all of which herald the transition from Winter into Spring. Such names include:

Crow Comes Back Moon.
Sugar Moon – marking the time of year when the sap of sugar maples trees starts to flow.
Wind Strong Moon – referring to the strong windy days that come at this time of year.
The Sore Eyes Moon – from North Dakota where the blinding rays of sunlight reflect off the melting snow of late winter.

Traditionally, each Full Moon name was applied to the entire lunar month in which it occurred, not only to the Full Moon.

It’s a period of new beginnings. Look for the spectacularly bright Moon as it rises above the horizon this evening!

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Take Part In Star Count 2022

The New Moon is on Wednesday, 2nd March which means the skies are dark and, when clear, the stars and constellations are much easier to see.

The best way to see how many stars we can all see in the sky is… to count them! We are very fortunate where we live when it comes to light polloution. The Countryside Charity are asking people from all across the country to become ‘citizen scientists’ and look heavenwards for one night. Join in by choosing a clear night from tonight, 26th February to 6th March 2022 and become a stargazer. It’s happening now – don’t miss out!

With brilliant support from the British Astronomical Association, they want you to look up at the constellation Orion and let them know how many stars you can count. Don’t worry: they’re giving you plenty of support on how to do this – click HERE. Once you’ve done your star-spotting, use their simple online form (click HERE) to quickly and easily send them your count – and then they get busy with the number-crunching.

Your results from Star Count will help them make a map of where star-spotters are enjoying deep, dark skies. By showing on a map where light pollution is most serious, they can then work with local councils and others to decide what to do about it.

Better still, Star Count is also a great way to switch off from the distractions of daily life and reconnect with nature. Look up at the cosmos and… breathe 🙂

Sign Up & Submit Your Star Count HERE.

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In other religions:

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