For most of my adult life, from the age of twenty-two, I lived in the tropics. This year I’m enjoying the Canadian winter and being with my family but I’m pining for the palms. Thinking about balmy Brazilian nights at this time of the year and remembering the giant palm trees. The reality is though, according to the “Farmers Almanac” this is a legendary moon and a very beautiful one, here tonight in Canada.
Full Snow Moon
February’s full Moon is traditionally called the Full Snow Moon because usually the heaviest snows fall in February. This name dates back to the Native Americans during Colonial times when the Moons were a way of tracking the seasons. And the Native Americans were right. On average, February is the USA’s snowiest month, according to data from the National Weather Service.
Hunting becomes very difficult, and so some Native American tribes called this the Hunger Moon. Other Native American tribes called this Moon the “Shoulder to Shoulder Around the Fire Moon” (Wishram Native Americans), the “No Snow in the Trails Moon” (Zuni Native Americans), and the “Bone Moon” (Cherokee Native Americans). The Bone Moon meant that there was so little food that people gnawed on bones and ate bone marrow soup.
See more about Full Moon names and their meanings.
- Palms Photo credit: ..Gratefulhume.. via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA
- Moon Photo credit: Aquila-chrysaetos via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC
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