Moonstruck...Native American names for each full moon

"Bluemoon (1)" by Craig Deakin from Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - 

I’m back! Completed my first draft of Through the Hourglass and on to the editing phase. (Because of my intense writing schedule, I will be posting new blog posts every two weeks for the foreseeable future.)

We’ve just experienced our third and final Super Moon of 2014 this past Monday, September 8^th. Granted, in my part of the world, rainy skies precluded viewing the Super Harvest Moon, however, there is some argument in the astronomical community over whether or not the full moon on October 8^th could also be considered a Super Moon. If it were, it would be a Super Hunter’s Moon. (Also known as a Super Blood Moon and, this year, coincides with a full lunar eclipse as seen in North America!) Whew! A whole lot of lunar action going on. It’s a wonder we’re not all moonstruck lunatics! To learn more about the eclipse, see this website: 

"Supermoon" by Peter2006son - File:Supermoon - Howrah 2011-03-19 1881.JPG.
 Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - 

http://earthsky.org/tonight/total-lunar-eclipse-blood-moon-hunters-moon-october-7-8-2014#eclipse

A Super Moon is one in which it comes to its fullest phase on the same night it swings closest to the earth, at its perigee. (As opposed to when it’s at its most distant, apogee.)  All that’s fine scientific information to know but I’m in love with the names Native Americans gave each full moon, names adopted by our Colonial American ancestors. Each full moon was named to represent something important going on in the natural world, a world in which our ancestors (Native American and otherwise) lived in much more direct contact than do most of us today.

 So, here is a list of those full moon names, some of their alternatives, and an explanation of each (Thanks to the National Geographic website for this fascinating information.) 

January: Wolf Moon
Native Americans and medieval Europeans named January's full moon after the howling of hungry wolves lamenting the midwinter paucity of food. Other names for this month's full moon include old moon and ice moon.

"Blue Canyon Moon (5020077179)" by John Fowler from Placitas, NM, USA -
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - 

February: Snow Moon
The typically cold, snowy weather of February in North America earned its full moon the name snow moon. Other common names include storm moon and hunger moon.

March: Worm Moon
Native Americans called this last full moon of winter the worm moon after the worm trails that would appear in the newly thawed ground. Other names include chaste moon, death moon, crust moon (a reference to snow that would become crusty as it thawed during the day and froze at night), and sap moon, after the tapping of the maple trees.

By Hahn Family Wines (Flickr: Harvest Moon8.JPG)
 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

April: Pink Moon
Northern Native Americans call April's full moon the pink moon after a species of early blooming wildflower. In other cultures, this moon is called the sprouting grass moon, the egg moon, and the fish moon.

May: Flower Moon
May's abundant blooms give its full moon the name flower moon in many cultures. Other names include the hare moon, the corn planting moon, and the milk moon.

June: Strawberry Moon
In North America, the harvesting of strawberries in June gives that month's full moon its name. Europeans have dubbed it the rose moon, while other cultures named it the hot moon for the beginning of the summer heat.

July: Buck Moon
Male deer, which shed their antlers every year, begin to regrow them in July, hence the Native American name for July's full moon. Other names include thunder moon, for the month's many summer storms, and hay moon, after the July hay harvest.

"Harvest Moon" by Original uploader, Roadcrusher at en.wikipedia - 

August: Sturgeon Moon
North American fishing tribes called August's full moon the sturgeon moon since the species was abundant during this month. It's also been called the green corn moon, the grain moon, and the red moon for the reddish hue it often takes on in the summer haze.

September: Harvest Moon
The most familiar named moon, September's harvest moon refers to the time of year after the autumn equinox when crops are gathered. It also refers to the moon's particularly bright appearance and early rise, which lets farmers continue harvesting into the night. Other names include the corn moon and the barley moon.

October: Hunter's Moon
The first moon after the harvest moon is the hunter's moon, so named as the preferred month to hunt summer-fattened deer and fox unable to hide in now bare fields. Like the harvest moon, the hunter's moon is also particularly bright and long in the sky, giving hunters the opportunity to stalk prey at night. Other names include the travel moon and the dying grass moon.

"Hard to focus on! (4317424759)" by Bernal Saborio from Costa Rica
- licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike

November: Beaver Moon
There is disagreement over the origin of November's beaver moon name. Some say it comes from Native Americans setting beaver traps during this month, while others say the name comes from the heavy activity of beavers building their winter dams. Another name is the frost moon.

December: Cold Moon
The coming of winter earned December's full moon the name cold moon. Other names include the long night moon and the oak moon.

The Blue Moon
Each year, the moon completes its final cycle about 11 days before the Earth finishes its orbit around the sun. These days add up, and every two and a half years or so, there is an extra full moon, called a blue moon. The origin of the term is uncertain, and its precise definition has changed over the years. The term is commonly used today to describe the second full moon of a calendar month, but it was originally the name given to the third full moon of a season containing four full moons.

From Amazon.com

*And on a less scientific but very romantic note dear Reader, in the 1920’s while on a trip from New York City to Miami, lyricist Benny Davis, pining for his sweetheart and seeing a beautiful moon reflected in the Perquimans River as he crossed the bridge in Hertford, North Carolina (just up the road from my Edenton,) penned the words to the famous song “Carolina Moon”. …Carolina Moon, keep shining, Shining on the one who waits for me…*

Have a good couple weeks dear Reader. Thanks for stopping by...Y'all come back now!

Kate

The Luck of the Irish...was NOT with Poor John Lawson

Portrait thought to be of John Lawson, 1700, artist unknown

I write this on the eve of St Patrick's Day to be first read on March 19 while I trust visions of all things green and lucky are still dancing in your head (and perhaps a bit of maniacal step dancing by some leaping leprechauns, as well!) At any rate, for some unknown and mysterious reason, my thoughts have turned to that most unlucky of eighteenth century fellows, John Lawson. Oh, poor John. Truly.

Title Page of John Lawson's Book

Last week's blog post featured John Lawson's glowing account of the qualities of women he discovered on his journey throughout the Carolinas in the first decade of the 1700s, published in 1709 as A New Voyage to Carolina; Containing the Exact Description and Natural History of That Country: Together with the Present State Thereof. And a Journal of a Thousand Miles, Travel'd Thro' Several Nations of Indians. Giving a Particular Account of Their Customs, Manners, &c 

See: https://archive.org/details/newvoyagetocarol00laws to view a copy of his book.

Before delving into the awful manner of Mr. 

Carolina Wildlife from John Lawson's Book

Map of John Lawson's Journey from

Lawson's demise, let me tell you a little of this remarkable man's accomplishments. In addition to exploring, what was then, a land of rough and tumble people, a land filled not only with the natural beauty and grace of its gentler inhabitants, but also with poisonous snakes, savage biting insects, and an air of lawlessness we usually attribute to the Wild West frontier days of America, John Lawson was responsible for the layout and establishment of North Carolina's oldest town, Bath, as well as for that of the town of New Bern, North Carolina. John Lawson traveled on foot and by canoe as he witnessed and recorded the amazing diversity of flora and fauna as well as the people, both native and immigrant. Note--I use the term, "Indian," here as that is how Lawson described them as opposed to today's preferred term, "Native American."--  On December 28, 1700, he, along with a crew of five Englishmen, three Indian men and one Indian woman, set out on a fifty-nine day journey snaking along rivers and trading paths beginning at what is now Charleston, South Carolina, moving in a crescent out to the piedmont region of both South and North Carolina and ending near present day Bath, on the coastal plain. Although probably about five hundred miles as flies the proverbial crow, his trip took such a circuitous route, his claim of a thousand miles is not unwarranted. His descriptions of the many Indian tribes he encountered (often a different one for each river) were, though sometimes colored with his bemusement, most often respectful, sometimes comparing them favorably to his fellow countrymen (and women.) To quote Lawson, with modern spelling:

Amongst (Indian) women, it seems impossible to find a Scold: if they are provoked, or affronted, by their Husbands, or some other, they resent the Indignity offered them in silent tears, or by refusing their Meat. Would some of our European Daughters of Thunder set these Indians for a pattern, there might be more quiet Families found amongst them, occasioned by that unruly Member, the Tongue.

Lawson did not limit his praise to the fairer sex, however, and although he referred to the native people as savages, he often remarked they were less savage in some ways than their Old World counterparts. His praise of the native peoples is all the more ironic in that his death was at the hands of the Tuscarora, whom he acknowledged with sympathy and respect in his book.

Tuscarora Warrior, artist unknown

in 1711, on the verge of war against the colonists, some of the Tuscarora looked upon Lawson as an agent representing people who were the source of terrible injustice and mistreatment of the natives. Not only had Indian lands been confiscated but many Indian women and children had been taken as slaves. Lawson, for all his close interaction with the Indians, appeared unaware of their belief that he was actually working against them. In mid-September, during a time simmering with hostility, John Lawson placed himself in the heart of Indian country as he took an expedition trip along the Neuse River to find a quicker route through North Carolina to the Virginia border. He was captured by Tuscarora warriors and subsequently killed. Baron Christoph Von Graffenried and his slave who accompanied Lawson on that fateful trip were eventually released by their captors and the baron's own illustration of the event is included in today's post. For those with a weak stomach or prone to nightmares, I seriously suggest you stop reading the remainder of this post. I am not being humorous and I certainly want the Reader to understand the grave and graphic nature of the description passed down to us from centuries past. Although it may have been embellished for reasons of propaganda, the methods described match those Lawson, himself, recorded during his time among the Tuscarora. So, here goes:

The Death of John Lawson, 1711, by Baron Christoph Von Graffenried

Splinters made from pitch pine were stuck into Lawson's skin covering his entire body. The horrible pain this caused was then increased a thousand fold when the splinters were set ablaze and the unfortunate man was burned alive. To quote Marjorie Hudson in her article, "Among the Tuscarora: The strange and mysterious death of John Lawson, gentleman, explorer, and writer," reprinted at http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/1645  from its original publication in North Carolina Literary Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, Summer 1992: 

His bleeding skin numbed by pitch pine, he begins to feel the heat on the skin of his legs and feet, the rush upward, the death dance now frenzied in his limbs, the last sight of this world framed in fire, and, finally, the soul escaping into a heavenly place like Eden, like the New World when it was still young, belonging to itself alone, a land that fulfills all expectations of balance, of beauty, of perfect enmity.

This terrible event preceded a war between the Tuscarora and the colonists which after two dreadful years ended with all of that tribe either killed, taken as slaves, or fled northward out of the Carolinas.

Have a good week, dear Reader. Thanks for stopping by...Y'all come back now! (And may we learn from the past.)

Kate