The full moon of December, sometimes called “The Full Cold Moon”, has just passed a couple of days ago. In a real rarity for where I live, the night skies were reasonably clear of clouds and the reflected light from the moon illuminated the landscape. The frigidly cold snow on the ground sparkled like jewels in the moonlight. Because the deciduous trees had lost their leaves back during autumn, the moonlight even shone brightly deep in the woods after sunset. At least once a month there is a similar full moon but we don’t always see it clearly because the cloud cover obscures the brightness of the moon.
From time immemorial people have named the objects observed in the sky; sun, moon, stars, and planets. Often these have some power attributed to them over the lives of humans as one way to understand the natural world. Even arrangements of stars have been connected (we call them “constellations”) and given names as well as stories about those names. It seems that we have always been fascinated by what we observe in the sky and in the world around us. Many of the oldest human stories center around those objects that are seen above us. And the movements of those celestial bodies are tracked and detailed in almanacs, which are some of the oldest books published in North America.
The almanac I use was first published in 1792, but it is certainly not the first published, or even the first published in North America. The earliest known compilations of astronomical and weather information (called “hemerologies” after the Greek roots meaning “calendar” and “days”) date back some 3,000 years. The earliest included advice for work to be done on various days as well as astrology predictions based on celestial events. The first almanac in North America was compiled and published by William Pierce in 1639 and titled, “An Almanac Calculated for New England”. These books became so popular that often only the Bible outsold them. Almanacs were such a source of regular income for printers that even a young Benjamin Franklin published “Poor Richard’s Almanac” annually in Philadelphia from 1732 to 1758 and reprints are still available today.
Names used for the various full moons come from Native American, Colonial American, and other old traditional North American sources that have been passed down over the years. Usually the name of the moon refers to an event or observed activity in nature that occurs at about the same time each year. The Full Cold Moon of December, for example, is the time of year where the cold weather settles in and nights become long and dark around the Winter Solstice. Before time was marked as we do now, the naming of the full moons (and other phases) and observations of the relative lengths of daylight and darkness were used to note the different times of year.
Even today, with our multifunctional watches and online calendars, we can have a connection to the past and the natural world by keeping track of celestial events and the changing of the seasons. We often spend so much time indoors that we sometimes forget the ancient power and wonder of the natural world. Consider taking some time each day (and night) to observe the outdoors and enjoy the connection to the larger wider world around us.