November
Beaver Moon
Traps were set before the waters froze over for winter.
Also called
Frost Moon · Mist Moon
Origin of the name
November is the month when the beaver finishes its lodge and its stores of tender wood, before ice seizes the ponds. The trappers, who wanted its winter fur — the thickest — set their traps under this moon. The name tells both: the animal preparing, and the man lying in wait.
The story goes…
It was said that the beaver is the only animal, along with us, that redraws the landscape to its own use: its dams make wetlands where birds, fish and frogs return. The old folk saw a tireless builder; ecologists, today, see an ally.
The almanac’s word
Under the ice, the beaver does not sleep: all winter it draws on its larder of branches, deep in the dark of its frozen pond.