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Full Cold Moon Full of Native American Folklore

Full Cold Moon Full of Native American Folkl

As skies darken and the northern half of the planet experiences its time of greatest darkness, many welcome the arrival in the sky of a bright December full moon.

But, nature had other plans Dec. 13 for viewing what Native American cultures named “The Full Cold Moon.”

“It hurts to admit it, but November and December are typically our cloudiest months here at Observatory Park, so it’s rare that we actually get a clear night for December’s full Moon,” said Chris Mentrek, Geauga Park District naturalist and leader of Observatory Park programs in Montville Township.

However, that did not stop program-goers gathering on a wintry cold evening inside Robert McCullough Science Center for the “Full Moon: The Cold Moon” program at Observatory Park.

The December “Cold Moon” marked the third and final supermoon — occurring when the moon is full and at its closest point to Earth in its 27-day orbit in 2016.

“’The Cold Moon’ is just another name for the month that we call ‘December,’” Mentrek said. “Since this moon-cycle is the one that includes the winter solstice, a lot of Native American cultures would describe this time of year as some variation on ‘the Cold Moon.’ However, my all-time personal favorite for Cold Moon names is the Lakota description of mid-winter as the moon when the trees pop from the cold.”

According to “The Old Farmer’s Almanac,” it happens to be the very brightest full moon of the year and is also called the “Long Night’s Moon” by some Native American tribes because it occurs near the winter solstice — the night with the least amount of daylight, which is Dec. 21 at 5:44 a.m. (ET).

The moon has also been called “Moon before Yule” because it rises close to the winter solstice, with last year’s “Cold Moon” occurring on Christmas Day.

The same week as the full moon, sky-watchers also were looking for the Geminid meteor shower.

“It’s my favorite meteor shower of the year, since, right when Ohio has its earliest sunsets, the Earth plows through the debris from an asteroid called Phaethon, creating a shower of meteors,” Mentrek added. “However, the December clouds rarely do this shower any favors.”

Cassandra McCartney, a senior from West Geauga High School, joined other class members under the planetarium dome.

“That’s awesome,” said Cassandra, with her peers from her environmental science class as she tilted her head back and helped identify winter sky constellations.

The seniors were in attendance to help fulfill a curriculum requirement for their class taught by science teacher Mike Sustin

“When I wrote the curriculum for our environmental science courses at West G, I built in an expectation for my students to attend one GPD program each quarter,” Sustin said. “With so many beautiful and diverse GPD properties in our own school district, and an amazing staff of naturalists, the park’s age-appropriate programs provide extended field experience opportunities for my students.”

Sustin added the astronomy programs are quite popular.

“Our kids don’t have access to good space science curriculum in school so they are already curious and Chris, the ‘astronat’ (astronomy naturalist), is an entertaining and knowledgeable presenter,” Sustin said.

Sustin added these are opportunities he cannot give them during the regular school week.

“Attending park programs helps them appreciate their local environment, gives them opportunities to learn in an informal setting with learners of all ages, and exposed them to the accessibility to lifelong learning venues and activities,” Sustin said.

Students shouted out constellation names in the interactive program as Mentrek shared wintry sky legends.

“One of my favorite legends about the winter sky from a Native American culture is the Lakota story of a woman who fell in love with the North Star, then moved to the sky to marry him,” Mentrek said. “Eventually, she broke a taboo that caused her to fall to Earth, where she gave birth to a half-human, half-star boy named Fallen Star.”

He added, “Fallen Star goes to have all kinds of astounding, magical adventures, including raising up Devil’s Tower in Wyoming to spare some sisters from a giant bear. He’s a pretty fascinating hero.”

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