Full Moons

Since I started watching Teen Wolf (dammit, why’d I do that?), I became interested in various aspects of the lunar cycle (particularly astrology, because astrology is just really really fun when you understand the science it’s supposed to be based on, regardless of whether or not it actually works). And one thing that caught my interest was that Peter calls the full moon in March the Worm Moon (when he gets Lydia to resurrect him). He also says that it’s the Worm Moon is the last full moon of winter. What got me interested was that the last full moon of winter isn’t necessarily in March (March might be the first full moon of spring with the last full moon of winter being in February, since March 21/22 is the Vernal Equinox and the official beginning of spring). 

The point of all this being, I went and looked up the different names for each of the full moons and when they occur. These two lists are based on the most common names I found using google, so they may or may not accurately reflect anyone’s particular local folklore, but they seem to match up with what Teen Wolf uses pretty well.

By month:

January – Wolf Moon
February – Snow Moon
March – Worm Moon
April – Pink Moon
May – Flower Moon
June – Strawberry Moon
July – Buck Moon
August – Sturgeon Moon
September – Corn Moon (or Harvest Moon)
October – Hunter’s Moon
November – Beaver Moon
December – Cold Moon

The second full moon in any month is called a Blue Moon (we had one August 31 this year).

By season (seasons being defined by the solstices and equinoxes):

Winter 
1 – Wolf Moon 
2 –  Snow Moon
3 – Worm Moon

Spring
1 – Pink Moon
2 – Flower Moon
3 – Strawberry Moon

Summer
1 – Buck Moon
2 – Sturgeon Moon
3 – Corn Moon

Autumn
1 – Hunter’s Moon
2 – Beaver Moon
3 – Cold Moon

In this system (and in the month system too), the full moon that is closest to the Autumnal Equinox is known as the Harvest Moon (regardless of which season/month it falls in). It’s usually the last full moon of summer, but is sometimes the first full moon of autumn.

Also, in the season system, sometimes a season will have four full moons instead of three. In this case, the third is called a Blue Moon. For example, if winter had four full moons the names would be as follows:
1 – Wolf Moon
2 – Snow Moon
3 – Blue Moon
4 – Worm Moon

We’ve already seen the Wolf Moon and Worm Moon referenced in Teen Wolf, and I remember reading somewhere that Jeff Davis was thinking about including the Hunter’s Moon next season (since it starts at the beginning of the school year). I’m ridiculously excited for it.