A Beaver Moon is coming this weekend - here's what that actually means
The Beaver Moon peaks this weekend at 1:22 a.m. ET on Saturday.
The phenomenon is also called a Frost Moon, but both names describe the same thing: the full moon.
In fact, these two labels join dozens of other names for this phase of Earth's largest satellite. The terms change from month to month:
- December: Cold Moon, Long Night's Moon
- January: Wolf Moon, Old Moon
- February: Snow Moon, Hunger Moon
- March: Worm Moon, Sap Moon, Crow Moon
- April: Pink Moon, Grass Moon, Fish Moon
- May: Flower Moon, Planting Moon
- June: Strawberry Moon, Rose Moon
- July: Buck Moon, Thunder Moon, Hay Moon
- August: Sturgeon Moon, Red Moon
- September: Harvest Moon, Corn Moon
- October: Hunter's Moon
Yes, these names all refer to the full moon.
Native American and other cultures accumulated them over the millennia to help signal important seasonal changes and activities. (November was a good time to trap beavers, for instance.)
There are also more contemporary names like supermoons and blue moons.
You can learn more about the meanings of these and other moon names - some of which are obvious, others not as much - in this thorough list by Business Insider's Rebecca Harrington.