Rest assured, you will not see hordes of werewolves in the streets during the next full moon, on the night of Monday January 13 to Tuesday January 14. But this full moon, which will be at its peak at precisely 11:26 p.m. according to the IMCCE (Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation), the first of the year 2025, has a particularity, as NASA explains, the US Space Agency.
The full Moon has always fascinated civilizations and has been associated with different beliefs, such as that one sleeps less well on a full moon evening. But did you know that each full Moon has an associated nickname based on the month in which it appears? That of May, for example, is nicknamed “Flower Moon”, that of November is called “Beaver Moon”.
This tradition dates back to the 1930s, when the Maine Farmers’ Almanac (Maine Farmers' Almanac), began giving Native American names to full moons. They then passed through the ages and became part of customs. At the time, the January one inherited the name “full wolf moon”, “because of the packs of wolves that could be heard howling outside the villages in the middle of the cold, deep snows of winter”specifies NASA.
Other nicknames exist for this full moon, such as the “ice moon”, the “old moon”, but also “the moon after Yule”. Yule being a festival celebrated on the winter solstice in Europe by Germanic peoples, before the Christian period.
On the other hand, visually, this full moon has no specificity, unlike a super moon or a blue moon. NASA recommends, if you want to observe it up close, to use binoculars or a telescope.
Note that the full moon will be in the constellation Gemini this month. The Sky Tonight site, specialized in observing the stars, specifies that it will be located “near Mars” and she will meet “Pollux, the brightest star in the constellation”. “Both objects can be seen with the naked eye”specifies the site, all you need to do is look for the light point close to the moon.
Be aware that the next full moon will be on February 12 and is called the “snow moon.” The more obvious meaning is linked this time to the heavy snowfall which is generally observed during this period.
