What is a “Frost Moon”?

6 November 2014

The Short Answer (TSA)

            November’s “moon” is sometimes called the Frost Moon. “A moon” was a unit of time to the early American colonists and the Native American tribes of what is now the Northern United States.

            The "Frost Moon" extended from the new moon, a time when the moon can't be seen in the night sky, to the next new moon. That period of time was called the Frost Moon, and the full moon was called the Full Frost Moon.

 

Frost Moon

 
The meaning of the term “Frost Moon” seems like it doesn’t need explaining. In the Northern United States, November is a time when the first frosts of winter come. These are the first freezes that kill garden plants and signal the beginning of the winter.

But, it’s worth remembering that the names of the moons were picked to be meaningful.  Each name “said something” about the time – something important to the people who used the name.

So, what was so important about frost? The frost they were talking about was, then, called “hoarfrost.” Now, we would call it “white frost.” It’s the white frosty layer that forms over grass, plants and just about anything close to the ground. Now, it’s most obvious and irritating appearance is on auto windshields making it necessary to allow more time to get to work on late-fall mornings.
 
But, to the people who named this November moon, the white frost was a message to the wise and warning to the foolish. During this time, nature gave us white frosts in the early morning to warn us that winter was coming. Winter wasn’t an easy time in those distant days. People had to prepare their homes for the cold, stock firewood and, most importantly, food. Once the winter set in, it would be too late to make the necessary preparations.

The morning white frost told the wise that it was time get to the business of preparing for winter. But everyone doesn’t listen. So, the white frost was a warning to foolish procrastinators who, proverbially, would ignore the warning.

The cautionary tale went like this. Nature sends the white frost in the early morning. The wise get the message and act quickly. But the foolish ignore the warning. And ignoring the white frost was easy because the warning is brief.

Shortly after the sun rises, the white frost vanishes. The foolish tell themselves that, because the frost disappears so quickly, it is a false warning of a false onset of winter. In the warmth of midday, it’s easy to forget the morning’s white frost and pretend that winter will never come.

Surprisingly, in ancient China, the same tale was told of November. There, you were warned that when you walked on white frost in the morning, the strong ice was sure to come "by and by."  The Chinese tale included a warning to the busy person who might be fooled because the ice increases so very slowly from day to day.  If you remain distracted by other things, and forget preparation for winter, you might find yourself suddenly caught in “the strong ice” and be unable to make any preparations.

The Full Frost Moon comes on Thursday, 6 November. Today.

M Grossmann of Hazelwood, Missouri
& Belleville, Illinois
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