Let’s not miss the next celestial show: on December 15th we will admire the Moon of the Long Nightsthe wonderful full moon of December that welcomes winter. The name, as often happens, comes from American tradition, but this is not the only name by which this moon is called.
Cold weather and the solstice are arriving (which this year will be December 21, 2024 at 10.19 am Italian time), the nights are getting longer to the detriment of the day: this is why the Native Americans called the December full moon Moon of the Long Nightsbut also Cold Moonrecalling the cold temperatures typical of this season but also the nights of the boreal winter, the longest of the year.
The flood phase will technically be December 15th at 10.02am Italian time, but to appreciate the splendor of the lunar disk we should wait for sunset (on the map the sky of December 15, 2024 at approximately 8.00 pm).
But the Native Americans – we know – are not the only ones to have given names to the full moon: the December full moon is in fact also known as Moon before YuleWhere Yule it is the winter solstice, a name given by people of Celtic origin.
In fact, the word seems to derive from the Scandinavian or Anglo-Saxon one ‘Iul‘, or from Norwegian “jul” which means “wheel”, indicating a date that marks the definitive point in the Wheel of the Year, when, in the Northern Hemisphere, one lives the longest night of the year.
Happy viewing!
Source: Moongiant
