The Wolf Moon is a full moon that occurs in January. Its name comes from hungry wolf packs that would howl outside the villages of Native Americans. This full moon is also known as the Old Moon or the Moon After Yule.
References
"Farmer's Almanac". Almanac Publishing Co.. 2006. http://www.farmersalmanac.com/astronomy/fullmoonnames.html. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year. Here is the Farmers Almanac's list of the full Moon names.
Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January's full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
Other names
In myth and folklore the full moon of each month is given a name. There are many variations, but the following list gives the most widely known names:
- January - Wolf moon only
- February - Ice moon
- March - Storm moon
- April - Growing moon
- May - Hare moon
- June - Mead moon
- July - Hay moon
- August - Corn moon
- September - Harvest moon
- October - Hunter's moon
- November - Snow moon
- December - Winter moon
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