Tomorrow night, given that the weather forecast is a bit sketchy, you might be able see the full beauty of the January full moon or the ‘Old moon’ as it’s also called.
The British Isles has many dark sky discovery sites which are largely free from light pollution, making them perfect places to observe astronomical events such as this.
Wolf Moon
The tradition of naming full moons is having a bit of a resurgence at the moment, with each full moon being given a headline worthy, romantic name, this one is being called the ‘wolf moon’ as it supposedly coincides with the howling of wolves in their winter courting. This is an Americanism though and wolves have been extinct in the British isles since the 1600s. More traditional names in British folklore for the first full moon of the year include the ‘moon after Yule’ for obvious reasons, the ‘frost’ or ‘ice’ moon and the ‘old moon’ as it is the the culmination of the last moon cycle of the previous year, the next new moon being the first of 2023.
The January full moon this year will appear in the skies on the evening of the 6th of January and will be at its fullest around about 11:07 pm. Unfortunately it will make viewing of the Quadrantids, a meteor shower which peaked 3 days ago on the 3rd, rather difficult, although this full moon isn’t as bright as they can be, being what is called a ‘micro moon’, a term used for when a full moon coincides with apogee, the point when the moon is furthest from the earth on its elliptical orbit.
Old Christmas
It also coincides with ‘old Christmas’, this being the date Christmas was celebrated in the Julian Calendar before it was reduced from 376 days to the 365 days we know now, it is also Epiphany in the Christian calendar, the twelfth, or last, day of Christmas, when you should be taking your Christmas decorations down (doing so before or after is considered bad luck!)
The sunset embers smolder low, The Moon climbs over the hill, The peaks have caught the alpenglow, The robin’s song is still. John L. Stoddard (1850–1931)
Addendum:
As redditor u/juniperarms has correctly pointed out:
‘I think it’s possible that we once called it wolf moon here without it being an Americanism. In The Restitution of Decayed Intelligence (1628) Verstegan wrote “our Saxon ancestors originally called this month Wolf-monat — that is, Wolf-month — ‘because people were wont always in that month to be more in danger to be devoured of wolves than in any season else of the year, for that, through the extremity of cold and snow, those ravenous crea- tures could not find beasts sufficient to feed upon.”’
A B-H
Northwest Nature and History 