Ancient Moon Month Names and Lore

by Ilona Erwin | Imaginarium, My Celtic Pages

For Signs and For Seasons

A Moon by Any Other Name

You’ve heard of the “Harvest moon”, but did you realize that many cultures had names for the moon each month, through the seasons?

Of course, the Native American tribes counted time with lunar cycles and had descriptive names,many people are aware of that. But so did most agricultural societies.

Even if their calender was ruled by the sun, the months -with their planting and husbandry cycles- were ruled by the moon. Today, we only use vestiges of those old designations when we speak of a “Harvest moon”,etc.

Once though, all the months had specific names for their full moons. It can tell you something of the culture and occupations of these older societies.

Ancient Cultures

ancient cave painting

Why did People Name Moons?

National Geographic explains it this way:

“For millennia, humans have used the movement of the moon to keep track of the passing year and set schedules for hunting, planting, and harvesting. Ancient cultures the world over have given these full moons names based on the behavior of the plants, animals, or weather during that month.”

It is easy to understand that concept as one reads through the monthly names, but did you know that some cultures had lunar time keeping while in the West we have a solar calendar? How did that happen?

The commonly used calendar today is one based on those of the Romans. We use the Gregorian one, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. The intent was to improve on the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar.

Trivia Facts About Lunar Time

Muslims use a lunar calendar of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days.

Calculating Easter Sunday for Christians requires the knowledge of the full moon cycle. Easter Sunday is on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

What might be the oldest known lunar calendar :

“What could be the oldest lunar calendar ever created has been identified on the walls of the famous, prehistoric caves at Lascaux in France.

The interpretation that symbolic paintings, dating back 15,000 years, show the Moon going through its different phases comes from Dr Michael Rappenglueck, of the University of Munich. ” -Read more from the article, ‘Oldest lunar calendar identified’

• Full Moon: Why Does It Happen? How Does It Affect Us? | Video
  What happens when the Sun Earth and Moon line up (in that order)? Do people (or animals) get crazy? Commit more crimes? The Moon always shows us the same face, but there’s only one instant when the Moon is truly “Full.”

Moon Gazing

Midnight Full Moon Through Big Tree
by Totally_Ilona

How Moon Names Can Benefit You

…taking notes from ancient cultures

We are no longer as in touch with natural rhythms as when more of our lives were centered around agricultural occupations of earlier times.

Even the more recent agricultural practices had distanced themselves from the need to forage and hunt wild animals for existence. So, when familiarizing oneself with the names that cultures attached to the full moons it becomes easy to imagine what it may have been like to be close to nature and observe the animals like buffalo or deer. Or to know which months were best for gathering berries important to the diet.

Not only imagining, but becoming more observant and in tune with how nature’s cycles can teach us.

How we may better garden, or eat fresh locally, the moon names can provide a guide to ancient rhythms of planting and harvesting.

We can eat strawberries any time of year if we don’t mind buying our supply from something grown halfway around the world, but if you want to gather wild from the woods, or buy locally produced berries…. which month do you expect to find them?

The Algonquin Indian culture could have told you when to find wild strawberries in the Northeastern USA .

Perhaps this knowledge is more fun than useful, but isn’t there a connection between how poorly we have husbanded the earth and our disconnect from it through modern lives and cultures?

When Is The Wolf Moon?

The Native Americans named a certain time of year after the wolf. Guess which month.

Trivia Pursuit of Moon Name Facts

The moon month names follow the type of society in which they are celled. Many of the old names are from hunter gatherer societies, as in the case of the Native Americans, while others are after the agrarian society concerns of seedtime and harvest.

In all cases there is a tie between the phases of nature and the procession of full moons throughout the year.

Some Appellations Coincide

January’s wolf moon is medieval English. The North Eastern American Indian also called the January full moon “wolf moon”. It was a time when the hungry wolves could be heard outside the camp.

February’s ice moon is of Celtic origin.

November: Snow or beaver moon?

“Snow moon” is a Medieval English label for this month.

While the name “Beaver moon” is Colonial American and Eastern Native American marking the best time to set beaver traps for the prized pelts.

Lunar Names

The Native American peoples tribes kept track of time by observing the seasons and lunar months. When dependent upon certain crops or animals, the full moon in that season might reflect such practices or observations. Consequently, for many people groups the names reflect important food information.

• December: The Celts called this moon the cold moon…
• …It was the Christmas moon to the Colonial Americans,
• Bitter moon to the Chinese…
• Every Algonquin tribe called the June full moon the “Strawberry Moon”.
• Celts referred to the moon as ‘queen of the night’.

Moons of Native American Tribes

Tribes with Moon Clans include the Mohave, Ottawa, and Pueblo tribes. The North Eastern tribes marked the time through lunar months, and many of the names we know as Native American Moon names comes from these tribes.

Celtic People Followed a Lunar Calendar

Celtic peoples used the lunar calendar. The Gaelic word for month is Mios relating to the moon’s disk shape.

Autumn Months

Early Farming Societies and Lunar Phases

Dating back to the Neolithic times, when farming became the prevailing mode to replace the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, the basic phases of the moon, especially relating to full and new moons, helped calculate seedtime and harvests.

Gaelic, a language of the Celts, is rooted in hearth and home, observing nature, including the features of each month’s full moon.

Winter Months

Midsummer Night Moon | Source: Larisa-K on Pixabay

The Spring Months

Full Moon Names

Summer Months

Phases Of The Moon

Moon Related Links – Moon names, facts, and inspirations

• A Moon Garden
  White plants reflect the moonlight.
• Full Moon Names
  Site with more than just moon names- find out about its magnetism, atmosphere, and more about the moon.
• WWU Planetarium – American Indian Moons
  American Indian tribes gave names to each of the full moons to keep track of the passing year.
• The Celtic Year
  Celtic seasonal festivals