Thanks in part to struggling for many years being a single mom trying to do all the roles, and being a working parent with depression, I haven’t been taking the time to craft personal rituals and traditions. This is something that is important and interesting to me, but it never won out in the time war.
Now that I have a better – yet incomplete – understanding of what I like, and what I’d like to try, I’m making the time for those activities. Hosting a Full Moon event has been on my wish list for some time now, and I finally made it a priority in October 2021.
Picnic Details
What is a picnic without tasty snacks? Well, I’m not sure and I didn’t want to find out so I bought a bunch of “fancy” snacks from the local Italian Centre. It’s helpful to have a theme when working on any kind of party. Thankfully one of the names for the October full moon is traveling so I purchased snacks from other countries. Polish popped corn, Californian grapes, Italian cookies and chips. Everyone brought their own chairs, so I was able to set the goodies on a picnic blanket in the middle of our circle. The only thing lacking was light! It gets dark fast up here this time of year, and my single speaker lamp wasn’t cutting through the gloom well enough. Although that did make for a more atmospheric evening!
Full Moon Details
Each full moon of the year has a name, or multiple names. These are usually based on the traditions of our European ancestors, and the Indigenous peoples of this land. We no longer use the moon cycles to track other natural events, so the names often feel out of date. I think that actually makes them feel more special, and it helps connect us to our past, and the history of this land.
For a full list of all the moon names of the year, by month, I used this website: Time and Date. It will give you a really basic 2-3 sentence explanation, which was enough for me to start the event planning (the theme), and dig around for more information to share with my attendees. For example, a traditional name for the November full moon is the Beaver Moon, because “this is the time they become particularly active building their winter dams in preparation for the cold season.”*
New Tradition
We are excited to add this new tradition to the Not Ladylike Community event roster! I am brainstorming ways to ritualize the event, or aspects of the event. But again, as I don’t have a lot of experience with that, I am making things up as I go along. A lot of the full moon rituals I have been reading about involve more spiritualism than perhaps some of our attendees would be into. My next goal for these events is to offer a spectrum of ritual aspects to both appeal to my attendees and allow them to try something new in a supportive environment.
The Not Ladylike Community will be hosting Full Moon events once a month starting with October’s Full Moon (as pictured here). For more information, watch the Events page and our Instagram. These events are sober friendly, queer friendly, and for all ages.
Not Ladylike Community 