MoonPhases

Moon Names

Cold Moon

December’s full moon, riding highest and longest of the year across the northern sky.

The Cold Moon arrives as winter properly sets in. Its better name is the Mohawk one, Long Night Moon, which describes something real rather than merely cold.

Because the full moon sits directly opposite the sun, its height mirrors the sun’s exactly. At the December solstice the sun is at its lowest for northern observers, so the full moon nearest it is at its highest — climbing steeply, crossing near the zenith, and staying above the horizon for the longest stretch of any full moon in the year. At 50°N a December full moon can be up for more than sixteen hours.

That combination — a high moon, a long night, and snow on the ground to reflect it — makes December the brightest full moon night of the year in the north, even though the moon itself is no brighter than usual.

Also known as

  • Long Night Moon
  • Moon Before Yule
  • Oak Moon

The 1778 record

Travelling among the Dakota in 1766 and 1767, Captain Jonathan Carver wrote down all twelve month names in a single passage. Published in 1778, it predates the almanac list by roughly a century and a half and is the oldest independent check on these names.

Decemberthe Hunting Moon
Carver's name for December. He gives “Cold Moon” to January instead — one of only two names on this list that shifted month between his record and the almanac's.

Sources

  1. Meeus, JeanAstronomical AlgorithmsWillmann-Bell, 2nd edition, 1998
  2. Maine Farmers’ AlmanacOrigin of the popularised moon name list and the seasonal blue moon rule, 1930s editions
  3. Full Moon NamesThe Old Farmer’s Almanac
  4. Carver, JonathanTravels Through the Interior Parts of North-America, in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768London, printed for the author — ch. IV, “Their Method of reckoning Time”, pp. 250–252, 1778