The is approaching with great strides January 25ththe day on which the first full Moon of 2024 will shine in the sky: a particularly awaited phenomenon, which is identified with a suggestive name of ancient origins, which has its roots in the ancestral traditions of Native Americans.
The one known as “Wolf Moon”, i.e. “Wolf Moon“, is the first full moon of the new year and derives from the very close bond existing between Native Americans and nature, especially when they had to mark time. The cycles of the satellite of planet Earth were the preferred method for determining the calendar annual by these very ancient populations with their immense and unjustly underestimated knowledge.
With the rhythms marked by the lunar cycles and the natural phenomena connected to them of particular relevance for their tribes, Native Americans used to create a union “between heaven and earth” also to give a name to such events. This explains why they meet celestial phenomena whose name is closely linked to harvesting, hunting, fishing, or certain animals. The month of January was the one in which the howling of wolves became more frequent and intense, also due to the fact that these animals, presumably due to the great cold, approached the villages more often: this could therefore be the origin of the name “Wolf Moon”.
It is not, however, the only denomination that distinguishes the first full moon of the year. In fact, we also frequently find “Central Moon” or “Central Moon“. The paternity of the name is to be ascribed to the Assiniboin, a Native American tribe, originally widespread in northern North Dakota and in north-eastern Montana, or in the great northern plains: this probably indicated the full moon which in a certain sense marked the conclusion of the first half of the cold season.The names Cold Moon, Ice Full Moon, Stay Home Moon, Quiet Moon or Severe Moon should derive from the Cree, the Algonquian and the Dakota.
Moving to Europe, however, Celtic tradition called the first full moon of the year “Moon after Yule”, since it was, in general, the first celestial phenomenon of importance following the “winter solstice”, an anniversary with which the “rebirth of light” was celebrated with the Yule celebrations. Technically, however, this is not always the case: this year, for example, no such coincidence occurred, as the first full Moon after Yule (the winter solstice fell on December 22nd) arrived already on December 27th.
Whatever you want to call the event, on January 25th our satellite will be at a distance of 365,581 kilometers from Earth, therefore higher than what is calculated to consider it “Super”, as done for the first time by the English astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979.