The Buck Moon
July's full moon
Growth, force, the summer peak
The July full moon, named for the season when a buck's antlers are regrowing in velvet. The 1937 English list called July's the Hay Moon, which is the honest European name for the same moon; Buck Moon comes down the other branch of the family. Thunder Moon is the most self-explanatory of the three, and probably the most widely felt.
Where the name actually comes from
The honest attribution
Attributed to bucks' antlers regrowing in July. Hay Moon is from the 1937 English list; Buck is not, and arrives via the Carver line.
Also called: Thunder Moon, Hay Moon, Wort Moon.
How it tends to be kept
- Traditionally marks the month when bucks' antlers are regrowing in velvet
- Thunder Moon points at July's storms — the plainest name in the whole list
- Many people mark it as the moon of visible, rapid growth
Questions the month asks
- What is growing faster than I expected?
- Where am I pushing, and is it the right direction?
- What have I outgrown?
Prompts are invitations to notice, not assignments — tradition offered as tradition.