Get to Know the First Full Moon of 2025: The Wolf Moon
The first moon of each year is called the Wolf Moon, and this new year it will reach peak illumination at 5:27 pm EST on Monday, Jan. 13.
Look eastward on the evening of the full Wolf Moon and you may glimpse it looming brightly well above the horizon, as full moons reach their highest annual position in winter.
If you miss the full moon at its peak, there’s still hope. A moon that looks virtually full will appear both the day before and day after it reaches technical fullness.
The first moon in January is called the Wolf Moon because wolves tend to howl more often in the winter months.
Clouds clear to allow a view of the full moon in Cornwall, England. Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Many traditional moon names—like the Full Wolf Moon, Strawberry Moon, or Beaver Moon—stem from indigenous tribes, early settlers, or Europeans. Today it’s unlikely that the sound of wolves howling can be heard in big cities, but it was probably a fairly typical colonial experience. Our ancestors thus bequeathed the Wolf Moon its moniker, and they probably assumed those wolves were howling in hunger.
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Wolves howling. Shutterstock/Bjarne Henning Kvaale
The Wolf Moon is just one of myriad traditional names for January’s moon (the Wolf Moon, in fact, denotes the entire lunar cycle and not just the full moon). Like the Wolf Moon, other names allude to animals of colonial times and January’s winter scenery. The month’s icy weather gave rise to names such as the Cold Moon and Frost Exploding Moon of Cree tribes, the Freeze Up Moon among the Algonquin, and the Severe Moon of the Dakota.
Animals besides the wolf inspired more moon names. The Potawatomi people around the Great Lakes spoke of the Bear Moon, the Haida in Alaska the Bear Hunting Moon, and the Tlingit of the Pacific Northwest the Goose Moon.
