Full Moon Names: Meanings and a Ritual for Every Month

The moon names most witches use are Wolf, Snow, Worm, Pink, Flower, Strawberry, Buck, Sturgeon, Harvest, Hunter's, Beaver and Cold. Each one gives that month's full moon a meaning to work with. Each name comes with its meaning in the craft and a 15 to 30 minute solitary rite.

What Are the 12 Full Moon Names?

Here is the standard list, the one most witches build their full moon esbats around. The common names and the Nation-credited alternates follow The Old Farmer's Almanac's month-by-month list.

The almanac names attach to the full moon in each calendar month. Older sources named whole lunar months, each starting at the new moon. So a name can sit a little differently on the moon phase calendar depending on which source you follow.

Credit line: This list braids three sources together:

• Jonathan Carver's record of interior Nations in Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America (1778), the oldest printed list of these names.
• English country names.
• 20th-century American almanacs.

Indigenous names are credited to their Nations and quoted as names only. The rites below draw on the almanac and European folk layers.

January: Wolf Moon Meaning and Ritual

The Old Farmer's Almanac ties the Wolf Moon to wolves heard howling in this season. It also notes that European settlers may have brought the term with them. The English layer calls it the Old Moon or the Moon after Yule, and Carver's list calls January the Cold Moon. The Assiniboine Center Moon and the Ojibwe Spirit Moon belong to those Nations.

In the craft, the Wolf Moon is the moon of loyalty, the pack and the protected home.

1. Light a silver candle in a window that faces moonrise. Stay with it; never leave a lit candle unattended.
2. Name each member of your "pack," one by one. For each, say one way you will keep faith with them this year.
3. Set a stone from your own land on the threshold as a ward.
4. Keep a pot of soup or tea warm for the household as the offering. Carver's Cold Moon fits it well.

Correspondences: silver candle, a pine sprig (decor only, set well back from the flame), a local stone. For more on wards, see wards. For candle basics, see candle magic.

February: Snow Moon Meaning and Ritual

Carver recorded this as the month when more snow commonly falls than in any other winter month. It is also called the Hunger Moon and the Storm Moon. The Cherokee name, the Hungry Moon, recalls the same lean season and is the Cherokee's own.

This is the moon of stillness, purification and what sustains you.

1. Write one habit you are ready to release on a bay leaf.
2. Hold the leaf over a bowl of clean snow, or cold water, in the moonlight.
3. Bury the leaf in the snow so it melts into the ground. Dress for the cold and keep this brief, since bare fingers in snow go numb fast.
4. Leave bread out for the birds.

If release work speaks to you, release and cleansing rites go deeper.

March: Worm Moon Meaning and Ritual

The name has two readings, and both are worth keeping:

• Carver's reading: the "worms" were insect larvae leaving the bark of trees where they had sheltered all winter.
• The newer reading: earthworms working up through thawing soil.

The Worm Moon is also called the Crow, Sap and Lenten Moon. The Ojibwe Sugar Moon and the Cree Eagle Moon belong to those Nations.

This is the moon of stirring, and of what wakes underground.

1. Light a green candle, then turn a pot of soil or compost by moonlight. The smell of cold, wet earth is half the rite.
2. Name one project of yours that is still underground: real, but not ready to show.
3. Bless your seed packets, and set them by the candle until it burns down.

If you garden, planting by the moon picks up where this rite ends. Ostara follows close behind on the Wheel.

April: Pink Moon Meaning and Ritual

The Old Farmer's Almanac traces the name to moss pink, or creeping phlox, one of spring's early wildflowers. It has nothing to do with the moon's color. The moon looks no pinker in April than in any other month.

This full moon is also called the Egg, Fish and Sprouting Grass Moon. The Tlingit Budding Moon is the Tlingit's own name.

The Pink Moon is the moon of first blossom and self-kindness.

1. Set a bloom from your garden beside a pink candle. Never pick a protected wildflower; ethical wildcrafting covers how to gather well.
2. Write yourself a letter of kindness and read it aloud. It feels awkward the first time, so do it anyway.
3. Press the flower inside the letter and keep it in your book of shadows.

Correspondences: In crystal practice, rose quartz is the stone of gentle self-love. Keep one on the letter as it presses. For more stones by purpose, see crystals.

May: Flower Moon Meaning and Ritual

The Old Farmer's Almanac calls Flower Moon a term used by the Algonquin and Ojibwe peoples. Carver's list already gave May as the Month of Flowers. It is also called the Milk, Hare and Corn Planting Moon.

This is the moon of abundance, beauty and creative fertility.

1. Float petals in a bowl of water under the full moon to make your moon water for the month. Don't drink it unless every petal in the bowl is food-safe.
2. Pour a spoon of honey on the ground for the land spirits.

The Flower Moon often lands just after Beltane, so the season's fire is still warm.

June: Strawberry Moon Meaning and Ritual

The name comes from ripe strawberries ready to gather. It is also called the Rose, Honey and Mead Moon, and Carver's June is the Hot Moon. Two Nations' names for this season are the Cherokee Green Corn Moon and the Haida Berries Ripen Moon.

The Strawberry Moon suits a simple cakes-and-ale rite, a long-standing part of the cakes and ale tradition.

1. Set out a bowl of strawberries with juice or mead.
2. Eat them one at a time. For each berry, name one sweetness from the past month.
3. Leave the last berry outdoors as an offering.

This esbat falls near the solstice, so it often carries Litha energy.

July: Buck Moon Meaning and Ritual

Buck antlers are in full velvet growth now, and Carver recorded the name in the 1760s. It is also called the Thunder and Hay Moon. The Western Abenaki Thunder Moon and the Tlingit Salmon Moon are those Nations' own names.

This is the moon of growth, strength and steady effort.

1. Light a gold or brown candle, and write the strength you are building on an oak leaf.
2. Carry the leaf out and lay it under a stone at the foot of a tree.
3. On a storm night, work indoors by a window instead, with the leaf on the sill. Never stand under trees in a thunderstorm.

Green witchcraft is the natural home for tree-and-leaf work like this.

August: Sturgeon Moon Meaning and Ritual

Carver wrote that in this month "they catch great numbers of that fish." This full moon is also called the Grain, Green Corn and Red Moon.

The Anishinaabe Ricing Moon belongs here too. The Ojibwe People's Dictionary at the University of Minnesota glosses manoominike-giizis as the moon of ricing, in August or September.

The Sturgeon Moon is the moon of endurance, ancestry and the deep and old.

1. Sit with an heirloom beside a bowl of river or lake water.
2. Speak the names of the ancestors whose endurance carried you here. If you don't know their names, speak what you know of their lives.
3. Return the water to a stream or to the garden.

Respect note: Honor the Ricing Moon by learning about the wild rice harvest, not by borrowing it as ritual. Closed practices explains why.

For the month's sabbat, see Lughnasadh. The August witchcraft calendar holds this year's dates.

September: Harvest Moon or Corn Moon Meaning and Ritual

This full moon carries two names from two strands:

• Corn Moon comes from Carver: the month when "they gather in their Indian corn."
• Harvest Moon is the English name for the full moon nearest the autumn equinox, recorded from 1706 according to Wikipedia's survey of the Oxford English Dictionary. Its early evening moonrises gave farmers extra light to bring the harvest in.

The Ojibwe Falling Leaves Moon and the Assiniboine Yellow Leaf Moon are those Nations' own names.

This is the moon of reaping, gratitude and balance.

1. Watch the moon rise on two or three evenings in a row. You'll notice each rise comes only a little later than the last.
2. Each night, write down three harvests from your year.
3. On the last night, share cornbread.

The Harvest Moon sits close to Mabon, and the two rites sit happily together.

October: Hunter's Moon Meaning and Ritual

The almanac explains the name this way: game is fattened for winter, and it is time to hunt and lay in stores. It is an English country name. A 1710 edition of The British Apollo records it as what "the Country People call" this moon.

Carver's October is the Travelling Moon, and the almanac also gives the Dying Grass Moon. The Ojibwe Freezing Moon and the Cree Migrating Moon are those Nations' own names.

This is the moon of provision, aim and honoring the dead.

1. Make a "winter store" list of what you need laid in, both practical and spiritual.
2. Tie a red thread around a pen while you name the one goal you will reach before midwinter. Keep the pen for writing toward that goal. Knot magic has more on binding a goal with a knot.
3. Near Samhain, light a candle for the beloved dead. Stay with it until you snuff it out.

November: Beaver Moon Meaning and Ritual

Beavers finish their winter preparations now and retire to their lodges, and Carver gives the same reason for the name. It is also called the Frost Moon. The Algonquin Whitefish Moon and the Cree and Assiniboine Frost Moon belong to those Nations.

This is the moon of home-building, diligence and shelter.

1. Gather fallen twigs and bind them into a small "lodge" with string.
2. Set it by your door with your house key on top.
3. Name the repairs, to house or heart, that you will finish before deep winter.

To pair this rite with a full reset, see cleanse your home.

December: Cold Moon Meaning and Ritual

The Old Farmer's Almanac credits Cold Moon as a Mohawk term for the time "when winter cold fastens its grip." December nights are among the longest of the Northern Hemisphere year, so this moon can stay up for much of the night. It is also called the Long Nights Moon, and the English layer calls it the Moon before Yule. The Mohican Long Night Moon is the Mohican's own name.

This is the moon of rest, the long night and inward vision.

1. Light a white candle beside a sprig of evergreen, set safely apart from the flame. Write a year-end review by its light.
2. Make two lists: what you will carry forward, and what you will leave in the old year.

Yule follows within days, so this review makes a fine threshold into the solstice.

Supermoon Meaning and Ritual

NASA Science describes a supermoon as a full moon that coincides with perigee, the Moon's closest point to Earth. It can look up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the year's faintest full moon. About a quarter of all full moons qualify, and they tend to come in runs of three or four.

The word itself grew inside the practice. Astrologer Richard Nolle coined "supermoon" in 1979 in Dell Horoscope magazine, as EarthSky recounts.

Nolle later claimed supermoons cause "geophysical stress," and Wikipedia's entry notes that scientists reject that claim. That part is overhyped. The amplification is spiritual, a bigger, brighter moon to focus a working. It is not a force acting on your body.

The supermoon rite strengthens a working you have already begun:

1. Choose an intention you are already working on, rather than starting a new one.
2. Set out water, crystals or a written intention in the moonlight, and leave them out overnight to charge.
3. Speak the intention as the moon clears the horizon. Moonrise is when a supermoon looks biggest.
4. Use the run of three as one working. Name it at the Beaver Moon on 24 November, strengthen it at the Cold Moon on 24 December, and complete it at the Wolf Moon on 22 January 2027.
5. If you live by the coast, expect tides to run higher during a supermoon. Stay off the rocks and out of the surf after dark. Sea witchcraft covers tide work safely.

For the wider lunar picture, see moon magic.

Blue Moon: The Thirteenth Full Moon

Twelve lunar months fall a little short of a solar year, so some years hold a thirteenth full moon. NASA Science gives two definitions of a blue moon:

• Monthly blue moon: the second full moon in a calendar month.
• Seasonal blue moon: the third full moon in an astronomical season that holds four instead of three.

Only about 6 percent of full moons are blue moons of either kind.

The seasonal rule is the original. The 1937 Maine Farmers' Almanac used it. According to Wikipedia's account, a 1946 Sky & Telescope article misread it, which produced the calendar-month version. Trivial Pursuit spread that version in 1986, and a 1999 article restored the original rule.

The most recent monthly blue moon fell on 31 May 2026, and none falls in the coming twelve months.

Many practitioners treat a blue moon as a bonus esbat. It suits a working that doesn't fit the regular year: a long-shot wish, a renewed vow, a rare thanksgiving.

Full Moon Dates for the Next 12 Months

All times below come from the U.S. Naval Observatory's Astronomical Applications data, given in UTC.

A full moon is a single instant, the same everywhere on Earth, so your local date can shift by a day. The Farmers' Almanac, for example, lists the 24 December 2026 full moon as 23 December in U.S. time zones.

The 15 September 2027 moon takes the Harvest Moon name because it falls about a week before the equinox. The October full moon comes about three weeks after it.

To plan the in-between nights, the moon phase rituals calendar has the phases. The next sabbat dates show where each moon sits on the Wheel. A full moon tarot spread pairs well with any of these nights.

Working Moon-Name Esbats Through the Year

The twelve rites are built to be easy to keep:

• Time: each takes 15 to 30 minutes, worked solitary.
• Layering: use the moon's name as the theme on top of your usual esbat structure. Cast as you normally would, and add drawing down the moon if that is part of your practice.
• Missed the night? Work the rite within a day either side. The moon still looks full to the eye.
• Southern Hemisphere: the names follow northern seasons. Adapt them to yours, so a snow rite might sit better in your July than in your February.
• Records: log each rite in your book of shadows. A year of entries shows you which moons truly speak to you and which you only admired on paper.

The correspondences in each section are traditional associations, gathered over generations of practice. To swap in your own, the candle color chart and herb correspondences are good places to look.

Safety: never put herbs on a flame. Don't eat any herb, or put it on your skin, unless you know it is safe for you.

Where the Moon Names Come From

The list grew from three strands woven together over three centuries.

Carver's record of interior Nations (1778)

Carver writes that some of the Nations he met kept twelve lunar months. Their year began at the first new moon after the spring equinox with the Worm Moon, and ran through Plants, Flowers, Hot, Buck, Sturgeon, Corn, Travelling, Beaver, Hunting, Cold and Snow. After thirty moons had waned, they added a thirteenth, "the lost moon."

He also records that the unseen moon was said to be dead. Its last three days were "the naked days," and its first reappearance was "its coming to life again."

Carver speaks generally of "the Indians" of the interior and does not tie the list to any single Nation. Later observers urged caution too. In 1882 Richard Irving Dodge wrote that two people of the same tribe might name the same moon differently.

The English country names

The Harvest Moon (recorded from 1706) and the Hunter's Moon (1710) are English. American folklore often credits them to Native Americans, but the record shows otherwise. Deeper still, Bede's The Reckoning of Time (725 CE) matched Old English lunar months to the Roman calendar. The Moon after Yule and the Moon before Yule come from this layer.

The almanacs

American almanacs popularized a standard list in the 20th century. Wikipedia's account of the 1937 Maine Farmers' Almanac shows its seasonal list presented as names given by "our early English ancestors." That list ran from the Moon after Yule through the Moon before Yule.

How the names reached witches

Practitioners picked the names up from the 1990s onward. Deanna J. Conway's Moon Magick (1995) carried alternates such as the Mead Moon and Blood Moon into witchcraft books.

The custom of gathering at the full moon has its own literary root. Charles Godfrey Leland's Aradia (1899) instructs: "Once in the month, and when the moon is full, / Ye shall assemble." Doreen Valiente drew on Leland for her Charge of the Goddess in the 1950s, and that is how the full moon meeting entered many Wiccan traditions.

Indigenous Moon Names, Credited Nation by Nation

"Native American moon names" is not one list. Each Nation that kept a moon calendar named its moons for its own land, waters and work. The table below is drawn from calendars as compiled by Western Washington University's "Archeo: Native Moons" pages, which themselves rely on a secondary source.

Two Ojibwe names can be checked against the Ojibwe People's Dictionary, maintained with the University of Minnesota's Department of American Indian Studies:

• gichi-manidoo-giizis is glossed as January. Western Washington University renders it "great spirits moon."
• manoominike-giizis is the moon of ricing, in August or September.

Don't merge the lists

The almanac and the university compilation agree on several names. Both give the Cherokee Green Corn Moon, the Tlingit Birth and Salmon Moons, and the Mohawk "time of cold" for December. They disagree on others, such as which month holds the Haida Ice Moon.

The ricing moon shows what flattening loses. The almanac scatters it across two months, as the Anishinaabe Ricing Moon in August and the Dakota Drying Rice Moon in October. Quote each Nation's name with its source rather than blending lists.

Using these names with respect

• Name the Nation every time: "the Tlingit Birth Moon," not "the Native American Birth Moon."
• Hold these names as knowledge to learn, not as a ritual menu.
• Don't pair them with closed practices such as white sage smudging. Closed practices explains where those lines sit.

Where to go next

To keep working the cycle between full moons, moon magic and the moon phase calendar cover every phase. Esbats lays out the full ritual structure, and drawing down the moon walks the rite itself.

For a quieter full moon, make moon water, lay a full moon tarot spread, or sit with the Moon tarot card. Gardeners can carry the rhythm outdoors with planting by the moon, and the moons themselves turn within the Wheel of the Year.