A full moon by any other name

You know the Harvest Moon and perhaps even the Hunter’s Moon, not to mention the occasional Blue Moon. Meet the Worm Moon, which I photographed from my backyard on Monday night. (By the way, tips for shooting moon photos are posted on my photo advice blog. See if you can figure out how I shot this photo.)

Each full moon has a name dating back to northern Native American tribes who kept track of the seasons by giving each full moon a distinctive name. The Worm Moon got its name by the fact that by this time of year, the ground is softening after the winter freeze and worms begin to emerge.

Here are the other names, listed in the month they generally occur (since the moon’s cycle is slightly less than a calendar month, the moons may change months from year to year):

January: Wolf Moon. Wolf packs howled hungrily under this moon in the dead of winter.
February: Snow Moon. To mark the month of heaviest snowfall.
March: Worm Moon. Explained above.
April: Egg Moon. Birds return from the south to mate.
May: Flower Moon. For obvious reasons.
June: Strawberry Moon. Marked the ripening of the strawberry harvest.
July: Buck Moon. Antlers of young bucks begin to appear.
August: Sturgeon Moon. The month when these fish were most readily caught.
September: Harvest Moon. Provides light for farmers to work late gathering their crops.
October: Hunter’s Moon. Time to hunt – fields are cleared, leaves have fallen, game is fattened.
November: Beaver Moon. Time to set traps for winter fur.
December: Cold Moon. Winter’s coming.

Spring Meme update: I gave away some virtual flowers in honor of spring a couple of weeks ago. Flowers sprouted all over the world. Heipet from Germany took me up on the offer and went one better. She has a lens at Squidoo where she has turned the Spring Meme into a blog party. Check out how you can get involved.

Below are my contributions to the online musings of the season:

DC in Bloom at Sugar, Spice and Sometimes Nice:
Thankfully, I was able to leave work last night in time to take a walk around the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms. I was rewarded with beautiful weather and beautiful sights. Read and see more.

If Dog Poo Turned Into Flowers … at Pug Possessed
Lamenting a late spring in the far north. Read more.

Flowers, Buldozers and Other Signs of Spring at WSJ blog
Does a would-be poet lurk in the P.R. department at the Federal Highway Administration? Read more.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2006 James Jordan.