4 December 2014
The Short Answer (TSA)
To the Native American population of North America, “moons”
were periods of time consisting of about 30 days. Actually, from the standpoint of the sky-watcher
on earth, the average period from New Moon to New Moon is about 29.6 days.
But these
periods of time, “moons,’ got their names based on the month in which the full
moon happened. So the “Long Nights
Moon,” as a moon-month, began with the New Moon on November 22nd. But the Full
“Long Nights Moon” will be seen on Saturday, December 6th. Because the Full Moon of the period falls in
December, what the Native Americans would have called the “Long Nights Moon”
began on 22nd of November and will end on the 21st of December.
The early
European settlers in North America already had a calendar. Basically, it was the same calendar we have
today, though less accurately calculated (it had a tendency to “lose time” and
fall behind like a bad watch). But, fast
or slow, the settlers stuck to their calendar.
What they
called the “Long Nights Moon” was just the full moon. They probably borrowed the name from the
Native Americans. When the first
European settlers became permanent residents and farmers, the Farmers Almanac picked up these early
names as the names of the full moons.
You can find these names there, today.
See: Farmers Almanac
We might
guess that there wasn’t a lot to do during the deep winter in the northern part
of North America. Maybe this contributed
to the, relatively, lack-luster names given to the winter moons. While other full moons boasted rather
exciting or interesting names like “Wolf” or “Strawberry,” the December full
moon was just given the dreary name, “Long Nights.”
Why long
nights?
The weather becomes cold and
nights become longer and longer. The longest
night of the year happens on the Winter Solstice, the day when sun’s rays are
weakest in the Northern Hemisphere. This
usually happens around December 21-23 of each year. After that, with each passing day, the nights
become shorter and days become longer. At
least, the days become longer until the Summer Solstice, in June, when, after
the longest day of year, the yearly cycle begins, again.
Mark Grossmann of Hazelwood, Missouri & Belleville,
Illinois
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