Mzatanos: Freezing Current Maker

In this month the full moon rises on November 8, 2022, if one consults the modern Gregorian calendar. It is the middle of the lunar cycle that began with the new moon on October 25th and which will renew on November 23rd. The lunar progression comes within a week of aligning with the calendrical month within this cycle, as we progress through Taguôgo, the Autumn season.

The eleventh moon of the Western Abenaki solar year is known as the Freezing Current Maker - Mzatanos - following the preceding tenth month of Penibagos, the Falling Leaf Maker. The days are growing much shorter, the vibrancy of summer has come to the end of its cycle. The trees are nearly bare, the geese are gathering to move toward the south, and at the edges of the water ice crystals begin to form. As all things on the surface slow down to a long sleep, thoughts turn inward.

Following the usual Algonquian polysynthetic language formation, the name of this moon is a combination of smaller roots: “mza-” which signifies “to freeze” or “frozen” combined with “ta” as an abbreviated form for “current”, and at the end we have “-os” for “the one who”. These individual morphemes combine to create the sequence “mza-ta-nos,” pronounced meh-ZAH-tah-NOOS, the Freezing Current Maker.

As winter draws nigh, with the noted brevity of the sun’s daily journey across the sky, we ready ourselves for the final moon of the year: Pebonkas, the Winter Maker.

This post is an updated version first published on Sokoki Sojourn.