Finally, December’s Celtic full moon names are the Cold Moon, Singing Moon, and Wolf Moon. It’s a time to celebrate the Winter Solstice, spend time with family, and reflect on the beginning of winter.

According to Celtic tradition, the April full moon is known as the Growing Moon or the Pink Moon. It is the season of love and conception and is a good time to focus on romantic relationships, conceiving a child, and taking continued actions toward your goals. It would also represent the beginning of growth of the harvest in Ancient Celtic communities. The November full moon was known by the ancient Celts as the Dark Moon or Oak Moon. In the northern hemisphere, the November full moon falls among the shortest days of the year. The first full moon in the Wheel of the Year, November is a good time to cultivate healthy habits and continue to let go of negative energy.

The cycles of the moon have been followed by people for centuries. Monthly moons helped guide planting seasons, celebrations and religious observances. Full moon names were common among ancient peoples all over the world. Here is a list of common full moon names used by the Ancient Celtic people in Europe.

Nature approaches her peak during a summer of short nights and bright days - this was when the ancient Celts claimed their wives and celebrated Lugnasad. As you can see from the Celtic full moon names above, they often named them after events, such as harvest season. This is typical of many ancient societies as they often had big celebrations during these periods. Can you provide more information about the connection between the Celtic people and celestial bodies like stars? September’s full moon is the Singing Moon, Harvest Moon, or Wine Moon. It’s a time to celebrate Mabon and the balance of light and dark and give thanks for all blessings in life.That repeated word “loud”, describing the “owlet’s cry”, primes our ears, or rather, our mind’s ear, or what Robert Frost called the imagining ear, to listen for a certain pitch of sound, heightening the shift into quiet that follows. Through the calm, the “strange and extreme silentness”, a thin blue flame comes into focus. Perfectly still. Not a quiver. Like the string of a lute, silent in stillness. Only the film of soot is moving now, fluttering on the grate, not still as in quiet, but, with a slight adjustment, still fluttering, moving, continuing to move, against the grate of the fire. It is “the sole unquiet thing”. The May full moon is known as the Flower Moon. As spring blossoms more fully in May, now is a good time to look at tending to your own life, including relationships, your career and your self care. Take action to make sure the seeds you planted continue to grow and thrive. Each chapter title is a traditional Celtic full moon name like the Quiet Moon for January and the Harvest Moon for October. The author delves deep into the etymological origins of the lunar months introducing the reader to the Coligny calendar- the oldest lunisolar calendar made in Roman Gaul perhaps in the second century CE. Physically, the Coligny is a fragmented bronze plaque written in Latin inscriptional capitals and numerals, but the terms are in the Gaulish language. There are twelve lunar months and an intercalary month is inserted before every 2.5 years- titled the Blue Moon in this book’s epilogue. The size of the font increases again, and now swans (white) appear, and then a gap in the poem, a pause, white space, creating a sense of quiet suspense as we listen again in anticipation, before the poem shifts into another time. Hadfield plays with white space, indenting lines and adding space between lines instead of conventional punctuation to suggest pauses as well as shifts in sound: The ancient Celts lived by and worshipped the moon. While modern, digital life is often at odds with nature – rubbing against it rather than working in harmony with it – is there something to be said for embracing this ancient way of being and reconnecting to the moon’s natural calendar?*