The Celts also wrote about the moon and stars in their mythology and folklore, as many Celtic stories and legends featured characters who had a close connection with the celestial bodies. The naming of the full moons often corresponded to specific events and celebrations, such as harvest season.

The moon is 384,402 kilometres away, so getting there is no easy feat. The Soviet Union first sent an uncrewed spacecraft there in 1959, and the United States followed with the only crewed moon missions. NASA’s Apollo space programme included six missions that landed on the moon, and the ill-fated Apollo 13 that orbited the moon but couldn’t touch down on the surface due to an explosion that crippled the spacecraft.Parr doesn’t shy away from personal narratives in the book. Some of them are very honest and give the book an alloy-like strength. His struggles with mental health and anecdotes from his younger years actually elevate the core sense of this book- the way of being- life being a vast sum of cycles and seasons. Finally, December’s Celtic full moon names are the Cold Moon, Singing Moon, and Wolf Moon. It’s a time to celebrate the Winter Solstice, spend time with family, and reflect on the beginning of winter.

The Celtic people not only observed the cycles of the moon but also used them for navigation and timekeeping. They were skilled astronomers and mapped the stars to create constellations and understand the movement of the planets. The stars were particularly important to the Celts during their travels as they were used to navigate during the night. The full moon names were associated with specific natural events, cultural practices, and spiritual beliefs prevalent during different months of the year. From the Quiet Moon reflecting rest and reflection to the Grain Moon signifying feasts and festivals, these names provide insights into the Celts’ seasonal activities, rituals, and societal values. The moon names served as both symbolic expressions and practical guides for the Celts’ daily lives and communal interactions.A synchronous rotation keeps one side of the moon shrouded in mystery from our perspective. It takes about as long for the moon to turn on its axis as it does to orbit Earth, so it keeps the same face towards us – the one known in folk tales as the Man In The Moon, a vaguely face-shaped pattern seen in the dark and light of lunar craters. As you can see from the Celtic full moon names above, they often named them after events, such as harvest season. This is typical of many ancient societies as they often had big celebrations during these periods.

November’s Celtic full moon names are the Dark Moon or Oak Moon, a time to cultivate healthy habits and let go of negativity. In this short poem ‘(Sound travels so far)’, Hadfield plays with greyscale font of various sizes to suggest a state of heightened listening. The typographic variances also register shifts of volume, amplification and diminuendo. Like Oswald, she plays with graphic codes for volume. If the shrinking font in ‘A Star Here and a Star There’ suggests distance and quiet, in her later long poem, ‘Tithonus’, from Falling Awake (2016), Oswald uses fading coloured font to convey a dimming of sound, a visual language for quietening. In the poem’s final lines, the ink gradually fades, so that the concluding word, “appearing”, is almost invisible, printed in the very lightest shade of grey, as dawn, and light, appear. This fading out produces in visual language an aural effect, the suggestion of diminuendo, in the way that bold or capital letters, larger font size or italics can suggest a louder volume. September’s full moon is the Singing Moon, Harvest Moon, or Wine Moon. It’s a time to celebrate Mabon and the balance of light and dark and give thanks for all blessings in life.

Out Of Stock!

In January, the full moon is known as the Quiet Moon, Wolf Moon, or Cold Moon, depending on the Celtic tribe. The Celtic Full Moon Names refer to specific names and meanings associated with the full moon in the Celtic tradition, which vary across different Celtic regions and tribes.

The June full moon was known to the ancient Celts as the Mead Moon or the Horse Moon. It was believed that a newly married couple should drink mead for one full moon cycle to promote good health, prosperity and fertility. June is a time to celebrate the longest day of the year with Litha and the Summer Equinox. Spend time outside, enjoying the long days and abundant sunshine. These practices underline the significant role that the moon and stars played in Celtic culture, both practically and symbolically. The ancient Celts lived by and worshipped the moon, but modern, digital life is often at odds with nature, rubbing against it rather than working in harmony with it. Is there something to be said for embracing this ancient way of being and reconnecting to the moon’s natural calendar? Each chapter title is a traditional Celtic full moon name like the Quiet Moon for January and the Harvest Moon for October. The author delves deep into the etymological origins of the lunar months introducing the reader to the Coligny calendar- the oldest lunisolar calendar made in Roman Gaul perhaps in the second century CE. Physically, the Coligny is a fragmented bronze plaque written in Latin inscriptional capitals and numerals, but the terms are in the Gaulish language. There are twelve lunar months and an intercalary month is inserted before every 2.5 years- titled the Blue Moon in this book’s epilogue. How did the full moon names in Celtic tradition reflect the natural and social environment of the Celts?

Join our email club...

The size of the font increases again, and now swans (white) appear, and then a gap in the poem, a pause, white space, creating a sense of quiet suspense as we listen again in anticipation, before the poem shifts into another time. Hadfield plays with white space, indenting lines and adding space between lines instead of conventional punctuation to suggest pauses as well as shifts in sound: It is a strange coincidence that I finished reading Kevin Parr’s The Quiet Moon on a New Moon. It made me think of several conversations in recent weeks about the calendar year, alternative calendars, and the concept of time. Austin Kleon wrote about the difference between experiencing time as linear vs. circular. How almanacs and lunar cycles observe the passage of time as the birth and rebirth of seasons, crops, and life itself. Humankind has needed a linear time structure to record and plan events. It is how the world runs. But simultaneously, the pandemic showed us that experience of time is subjective. It waxes and wanes just like the moon despite what the calendar says. I love how Parr describes ‘time’ in the prologue of this book: