Weird Full Moon Names of 2014 Explained by Joe Rao, SPACE Skywatching Columnist | January 13, 2014 03:07pm ET The first full moon of 2014 rises this week, but despite being the first of the year, it has the surprising name Old Moon for some cultures, but its not the only lunar nickname for the event. Full moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. Those tribes of a few hundred years ago 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 were some variations in the moon names, but in general the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England on west to Lake Superior. European settlers followed their own customs and created some of their own names. Since the lunar (synodic) month is roughly 29.5 days in length on average, the dates of the full moon shift from year to year.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 11:37:20 +0000
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