Moon Moments
The lunar calendar and it’s place in our seasons.
Have you ever noticed that the full moons every month have a name associated with them? A name that in some way represents the season they’re in, like the Snow Moon in February, the Flower Moon in May, the Hunter’s Moon in October and so on? That each month, it isn’t just simply a “full moon” but rather one that has ties to that month specifically?
Here in the US, the various names for the moons originally stem from the nations of Indigenous Americans, with some variations in name based on the nation. The names were symbolic for a certain event or activity that happened in their area during that time (hence the variations of names used) but that created somewhat of an expectation or understanding of what would come next. In many cases, these names were then adapted by the colonists of early America.
The moon has always been a timekeeper of sorts, with ancient cultures like the Celts, Egyptians and Romans using the lunar cycle as a guide. Lunar calendars were the original calendars first created by the Babylonians, adapted by the Greeks and then later the Romans (before Julius Cesar introduced the Julian calendar). The moon cycles creating segments of time that had a place in the larger cycle of the sun.
It’s in these ancient cultures where the lunar cycles also first linked up in unison with the stars, as the moon would be moving through certain constellations in the sky every month aligned with the earth’s ecliptic plane. These were the same constellations that the sun would pass through each year, albeit at a slower pace given the longer orbit of the earth around the sun. These specific constellations are the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
There has always been this connection to the moon, the earth, the zodiac and our seasons. For example, the Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year given the earth’s location relative to the sun. On that day, the sun sits over the Tropic of Capricorn (the latitudinal line 23.5 degrees south of the equator) which, given the natural tilt of the earth, positions us in the Northern Hemisphere leaning away from the sun. This day, when the sun is on the Tropic of Capricorn, also marks the beginning of Capricorn season in the astrological year.
It’s fair to say that we’ve come a long way in our understanding of time and space given the incredible advancements of science, exploration and fact. Yet at the same time, our current understanding doesn’t fully displace these earlier methods used by people before us, as we still recognize the many seasonal celebrations throughout the year. At the heart of them all, they are simply an observation of the various cycles within nature using the cosmos as a guide.
Image courtesy of @jkaufmanphotography via Unsplash