July
Buck Moon
The season when the bucks’ antlers grow anew, still in velvet.
Also called
Thunder Moon · Hay Moon
Origin of the name
Every winter the buck sheds his antlers; every summer they grow back — up to two centimetres a day, one of the fastest growths in the animal kingdom. In July they are still sheathed in velvet, the nourishing skin he will rub off against the trees come autumn. The American almanacs made this the buck moon; peasant Europe, busy elsewhere, said hay moon.
The story goes…
It was said that July is also the thunder moon: the month of the great summer storms, when the day’s heat breaks in the late afternoon. People watched the sky as they brought in the hay — one rain on the windrow, and the harvest would ferment.
The almanac’s word
Antler velvet is alive: veined, sensitive, warm to the touch. At summer’s end, the buck strips it off against the trunks in a matter of hours.