Full Moon names and eclipses.

Did you know that each full moon was given a name by Native Americans and Medieval Europeans to track the weather and the seasons. The names were derived from natures activities at the time. They used the full moon as their calendar to keep track of the present weather cycle and what was to come so they could prepare for abundance of food, cold, hot or wet weather.

The following are the names the Native American gave to the full moons, and are relevant to the Northern Hemisphere.

January - Wolf Moon. February - Snow Moon. March – Worm Moon. April – Pink Moon. May – Flower Moon. June – Strawberry Moon. July – Buck Moon. August – Sturgeon Moon. September – Harvest Moon. October – Hunter’s Moon. November – Beaver’s Moon. December – Cold Moon.

Other cultures also gave names to the full moons according to their weather and spiritual traditions this is why you see different names being published.

You may hear of a full moon being called a “Blue Moon” and this signifies a second full moon for the month as the moon has a 29 day cycle, not 30 or 31 as in the Gregorian calendar, not natures calendar. The Gregorian calendar was created by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582!

You may also hear the term “Super Full Moon” meaning the moon is closer to the earth which makes it look bigger than normal. The moon has an elliptical (oval) path around our planet, not a circular path like you see in most pictures.

Eclipses occur in pairs and are called an eclipse season. There are normally 2 seasons occurring about 6 months apart. This year eclipse season starts with two in March and two in September. There is a lunar eclipse, when the earth is between the moon and the sun forming a shadow on the moon and a solar eclipse is when the moon is between the sun and the earth making a shadow on the earth from the moon as it blocks out the light of the sun.

Recently these names and terms have been used to amplify or dramatize these events and now you can see that they are terms used to track time and seasons.

The first eclipse season for this year has already begun and I’ll talk about that event very soon.

I hope you have a beautiful day and a lovely weekend ahead.

Blessings to you,

Kym