Daily Postcard: The Cold Moon shining Sunday night over Velarde. December’s full Moon is most commonly known as the Cold Moon—a Mohawk name that conveys the frigid conditions of this time of year when cold weather begins to grip. The names used in The Old Farmer’s Almanac come from Native Americans, Colonial Americans, or other traditional sources passed down through generations. Different Native American peoples traditionally used the monthly Moons and nature’s corresponding signs as a calendar to track the seasons. This month’s full Moon has also been called the Long Night Moon (Mohican), as it rises during the ‘longest’ nights of the year, near the December winter solstice. Other names that allude to the cold and snow include Drift Clearing Moon (Cree), Frost Exploding Trees Moon (Cree), Moon of the Popping Trees (Oglala), Hoar Frost Moon (Cree), Snow Moon (Haida, Cherokee) and Winter Maker Moon (Western Abenaki). Source: www.almanac.com. Photo by Johnnie Martinez