Full Moon names: Moon Mysteries (video)

Edge of Wonder; Richie from Boston; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

What are the full moon names?

This is an early list of "Indian month [moonth] names." It was published by Daniel Carter Beard in The American Boy's Book of Signs, Signals and Symbols (1918) for use by the Boy Scouts. Beard's American "Indian" month [moonth] names were:

1. January: Difficulty, Black Smoke
2. February: Raccoon, Bare Spots on the Ground
3. March: Wind, Little Grass, Sore-Eye
4. April: Ducks, Goose-Eggs
5. May: Green Grass, Root-Food
6. June: Corn-Planting, Strawberry
7. July: Buffalo (Bull), Hot Sun
8. August: Harvest, Cow Buffalo
9. September: Wild Rice, Red Plum
10. October: Leaf-Falling, Nuts
11. November: Deer-Mating, Fur-Pelts
12. December: Wolves, Big Moon
13. [Wisdom Quarterly asks: Where's the other full moon? There are 13 full ones every year because there are 13 months every year. Don't believe it? How many days in a week? (7) How many weeks in a month? (4) What is 7x4? (28) What number times 28 = 365? This is the same as asking, How many months in a year? (13) Why? 13x28=364 + New Year's Day = 365. But we have been lied to and tricked out of our natural earth-clock the Moon (Soma, Chandra, Luna), which was replaced by a faulty imperial Christian solar or lunisolar calendar and the Holy Roman Catholic imperial Gregorian time system.]

(Richie from Boston) How far is our Moon? Not a quarter million miles

Such names have gained currency in American folklore. They appear in print more widely outside of the almanac tradition from the 1990s onwards in popular publications about the Moon. Mysteries of the Moon by Patricia Haddock ("Great Mysteries Series," Greenhaven Press, 1992) gives an extensive list of such names along with the individual Native American tribal groups with which they were supposedly associated.

Haddock supposes that certain "Colonial American" moon names were adopted from Algonquian languages (formerly spoken in the territory of New England), while others are based in European tradition (e.g., the Colonial American names for the May moon, "Milk Moon," "Mother's Moon," "Hare Moon" have no parallels in the supposed Native American names, while the name of November, "Beaver Moon," is supposedly based in the Algonquin). 

 

The individual names given in Farmers' Almanac include:

1. January: "Wolf Moon" (this is the name of December in Beard 1918) also "Old Moon"
2. February: "Snow Moon" also "Hunger Moon"
3. March: "Worm Moon," "Crow Moon," "Sap Moon," "Lenten Moon"
4. April: "Seed Moon," "Pink Moon," "Sprouting Grass Moon," "Egg Moon" (c.f. "Goose-Egg" in Beard 1918), "Fish Moon"
5. May: "Milk Moon," "Flower Moon," "Corn Planting Moon"
6. June: "Mead Moon," "Strawberry Moon" (c.f. Beard 1918), "Rose Moon," "Thunder Moon"
7. July: "Hay Moon," "Buck Moon," "Elk Moon," "Thunder Moon"
8. August: "Corn Moon," "Sturgeon Moon," "Red Moon," "Green Corn Moon," "Grain Moon"
9. September: "Harvest Moon," "Full Corn Moon"
10. October: "Hunter's moon," "Blood Moon"/"Sanguine Moon"
11. November: "Beaver Moon," "Frosty Moon"
12. December: "Oak Moon," "Cold Moon," "Long Night's Moon"

The Long Night's Moon is the last of the year and the closest to the winter solstice. "Ice moon" is also used to refer to the first full moon of January or February.

Eastern full moon festivals

(See also Purnima) In Hinduism and Buddhism (called Uposatha), most festivals are celebrated on auspicious days. Many of the Hindu festivals are celebrated on days with a full moon at night. Different parts of India celebrate the same day with different names, as listed below:

1. Chaitra Purnima - Gudi Padua, Yugadi, Ugadi, Hanuman Jayanti (April 15, 2014)
2. BUDDHIST VESAK: Vaishakh Purnima - Narasimh Jayanti, Buddha Jayanthi (May 14, 2014)
3. Jyeshtha Purnima - Vat Savitri Vrat Vat Purnima (June 8, 2014)
4. Guru Purnima - the full moon of the Ashadh month
5. Vyas Purnima - important day for starting education and honoring teachers
6. Shravan Purnima - good day for starting Upanayan day, Avani Avittam, Raksha Bandhan- conceptually Onam also comes on this day.
7. Bhadrapad Purnima - start of Pitrupaksha, Madhu Purnima
8. Ashvin Purnima - Sharad Purnima
9. Kartik Poornima - Thrukkarthika
10. Margasirsha Purnima - Thiruvathira, Dathatreya Jayanthi
11. Pushya Purnima - Thaipusam, Shakambharee Purnima
12. Magha Purnima
13. Phalguna Purnima - Holi

Lunisolar over Lunar calendar

Most pre-modern calendars the world over were lunisolar, combining the solar year with the lunation by means of intercalary months. The Julian calendar abandoned this method in favor of a purely solar reckoning while conversely the 7th-century Islamic calendar opted for a purely lunar one.

A continuing lunisolar calendar is in the Hebrew calendar. Evidence of this is noted in the dates of Passover and Easter in Judaism and Christianity, respectively. Passover falls on the full moon on 15 Nisan of the Hebrew calendar. The date of the Jewish Rosh Hashana and Sukkot festivals along with all other Jewish holidays are dependent on the dates of the new moons... More