The Sturgeon Moon
August's full moon
Harvest beginning, depth, plenty
The August full moon, named for the lake sturgeon most readily caught in the Great Lakes at this time. It is one of the few names in the list tied to a specific place and a specific practice, which is exactly what makes it interesting — and exactly what the pan-continental list erases by presenting a Great Lakes name as everyone's August moon.
Where the name actually comes from
The honest attribution
Attributed to the Great Lakes sturgeon fishery — a genuinely regional name. Grain Moon, beside it, is from the 1937 English list.
Also called: Grain Moon, Green Corn Moon, Red Moon.
How it tends to be kept
- Traditionally tied to the Great Lakes sturgeon fishery — a name of one region
- Grain Moon marks the start of the northern grain harvest
- Many people mark it as the first of the harvest moons, before the equinox
Questions the month asks
- What am I beginning to gather in?
- What has been running deep and unnoticed?
- What is nearly ready?
Prompts are invitations to notice, not assignments — tradition offered as tradition.