WATCH FOR THE SNOW MOON

I grew up learning to watch the skies, the fields, the leaves on the trees for weather signals. When I was in school, many years ago, a I presume it is no different today, we anticipated and looked forward to “Snow Days,” days when it was too stormy to go to school. A few of us had pretty much learned to predict those days fairly accurately. We watched for “the snow moon,” when we could even see the moon through the clouds. The Snow Moon is the full moon in February and appears as a burnished, somewhat tarnished silver orb that is often seen through a hazy shroud; even on a clear night the snow moon appears to have a frosty hazy over and around it. It is a cold moon. That frosty haze usually meant a nor’easter was bearing down on us and a nor’easter meant a snow day, a day off from school. From mid-February to middle March you could pretty safely predict at least three or four major storms and there are usually seven as a minimum during the winter season.

The Wolf Moon of January warns that Snow Moon is coming. You can hear its howls in the night as the earth becomes encased in an icy shell and the snows fall from the sky. It is a time of the long night when the sun’s light is shortened and the moon breathes its cold breath in giant clouds that darken the sky even in the short hours of day and prevents the sun’s warmth from passing through to warm the creatures of the Earth. Hear the wolf moon howl and be warned, the snow moon is coming.

The Snow Moon arrives in February, the month when winter brings on its most severe weather, when the ghost panther howls and the snow ghost dance. It is the moon that ushers in hunger when food is scarce and the hunting usually brings no meat. It is a season of icy winds and deep snow. Snow may pile up waist deep overnight. Tree branches and boughs become so heavily iced they bend low to the ground and may even break. It is a dangerously cold time of year, a time of three dog nights; nights when it takes thick pile of warm blankets and three dogs snuggled in to keep the body warm. It is a time when even though the home fires crackle and breathe promise it spreads little warmth into the breath of the snow moon. Its breath is icy cold. From the Snow Moon to the waking of the Crow Moon is a bitter season and a hungry season unless you have prepared well for it.

Since pre-historic times man has measured time and seasons by the rising and setting, the waxing and waning of the moons. Early cultures and civilizations named the moons giving the moon names that would help them keep track of the seasons in nature and later in agriculture. These names applied themselves to the entire season from moon to moon. Native cultures have since pre-historic time lived by a lunar measure to time and while most of our months have 30 or 31 days a lunar month has 29 days, there are exactly 29 days from full moon to full moon. The Native Americans of the Algonquin peoples named them this way. The Algonquin tribes are from New England and their home lands range as far west as Lake Superior. Having lived in Northern New England all my life I can attest to the truth in the names given these moons and Snow Moon certainly breathes with a very icy and chilling breath bringing much deep snow and ice upon the Earth and it inhabitants.

According to Algonquin legend the seasons of the moon are these: January brings WOLF MOON, a season of cold and snow when the wolf packs howl outside the village …it is the old moon when the seasons of plenty die and the earth is laid to rest. February brings the SNOW MOON when ghost panther howls and the snows fall deep and there is no food to be found. It is a season of hunger and cold and great storms that go on day after day. Then in March come the CROW MOON or the FULL SAP MOON, a welcome moon when the cawing of the crows announces the rising of the sap and the ending of winter. It is a time of warmer and thawing days but the nights are still freezing cold. It is the time for the tapping of the maple trees and is the last full moon of the wintering. April brings the SPROUTING MOON, a time when the leaves and grass are sprouting and the Earth is waking up from its long winter sleep and new life is being born again. Tribes living in coastal areas also called this the FISH MOON because it is the time of year when the shad swim upstream to spawn. It is a time when the rivers are freed of winter’s icy grip and are running high and free again. May is the month of the FLOWERING MOON also called the PLANTING CORN MOON. It is a time when spring has fully arrived and the trees and herbs are again blooming and announcing the good tidings of a coming harvest. It is the season to plant corn and other crops. The full moon of June is called the STRAWBERRY MOON the season to harvest the strawberry and then comes July with it THUNDER MOON a time when thunder storms are abundant. It is also sometimes called the HAY MOON associating it with the season to gather straw and grass for bedding and thatching and feed. With August comes the GREEN CORN MOON or the GRAIN MOON a time when the wild grains are being harvested from the fields and the corn is developing on the stalks. It is also the time for harvesting of fruit and wild herbs and grasses and a time to begin storing up. September brings the CORN HARVEST MOON or RIPE CORN MOON and the beginning of the major harvest season and preparing for the cold winter season ahead. And come October the moon becomes the FULL HARVEST MOON, the time for harvesting the pumpkins and squash and beans and the wild rice and other crops. It is the season of great harvest and a time of plenty. November brings with it the FROST MOON or the BEAVER MOON, a time for trapping and gathering warm pelts of fur for warmth against the coming winter cold. Frost Moon brings a deep chill to the air and the rivers and marshes soon freeze. The ducks and the geese and other wild birds fly away south and winter is soon to come. It is a time to be sure all preparations are done and your home is made ready before Cold Moon arrives bringing with it the long night, a time when there is more darkness than light. It is December and the season of the COLD MOON when winter’s icy grasp holds the Earth in its clutches. The fields and forest are now fallow and it is the season of sticks, the gather of much fire wood to keep the lodges warm in the season of the Wolf moon and the most dreaded season of all, the hungry season, the season of the SNOW MOON. But soon Crow will once again announce the coming of spring. The sap will rise and the geese and ducks will return and the fields and trees will grow green again and there will be sowing and reaping and gathering and plenty and a time of feasting and preparing before another season of sticks and the coming of the Cold Moon and the howling of the Wolf Moon and the arrival of Snow Moon, the season of hunger…And maybe a few days off from school.