November’s Sleeping Full Moon

A “Blood Moon” rising over a barn in rural central Texas by Mike Mezeul II via tumblr

Thursday, the 6th will be the Full Moon for November 2014.

Each month I try to choose a different name for the Full Moon and a new story of its origin. If you want to choose from observations of nature there are the Frost Moon, Fog Moon, Snow Moon and Sassafras Moon (Choctaw) as possibilities. You can choose a name from the activities of insects and animals: Beaver Moon, Moon When Horns Are Broken Off (Dakotah Sioux). Full Moon names that are more symbolic include: Initiate Moon, Dark Moon, Kindly Moon (China), and Mourning Moon (Druid).

This year, I chose to mark Oveanh, the second month in the Celtic calendar, which marks this as the Sleeping Moon. This is a time for deeper thought and contemplation. Perhaps this was partially due to the weather being colder and people having to spend more time indoors and having more time (with field work ending) to read, talk and think.

As with some other cultures, including American Indians, the Celtic Full Moons are not a one day event but rather a day that begins a month-long period. Oveanh is actually from the November full moon to the December Dark Moon.

The Celtic calendar consists of thirteen months based on the lunar cycle and starts in our October. Samhain, the end of the year, falls on the last full moon of October. However, after Samhain there is a “no time” period of five days that are not a part of the calendar year to mark this transition between the states of chaos and change and the old and new year.  The month of Maghieden, the shortest of their months, began after the “no time” period and ends with the next full moon of our November.

 

 

The Time of No Time

The Celtic calendar consists of thirteen months based on the lunar cycle. The holiday called Samhain marks the end of  the year. It is celebrated from sunset on October 31st until sunset on November first.

This time was chosen because it was the midpoint between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, and so this Gaelic festival marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year.

An interesting feature of this lunar calendar is that after Samhain there is a period of five days that are not a part of the calendar year. This is a time considered to be between the states of chaos and change. It is a transition between the old and new year. It is a period of “no-time” and we enter that period tonight.

After we pass through these transitional five days of “no-time,” the new year begins.

Of course, a lunar calendar isn’t as accurate as our modern calendar, but in its time it served the needs of people. The no-time was  a way to adjust the lunar calendar to make a year that coincided with astronomical events.

Afte the period of no-time, a short first month of Maghieden launches the year. It is considered an auspicious time for births, beginnings and a good time to start a journey. Maghieden lasts until the next full moon making it the shortest month of the year.

In this kind of lunar calendar the “Full Moon” marks a period of time rather than an event on one night. It would be as if when the Full Moon came next for us we called it the November Moon and started the month on that day and it lasted until the December Full Moon.