Piaôdagos: Makes Branches Fall Into Pieces Moon

First published at Sokoki Sojourn, February 2019, by Rich Holschuh, updated for the present.

The second month of the Abenaki annual cycle has begun. The new moon following Alamikos (also known as Anhaldamawikizos) occurred yesterday, on February 11, 2021 here in Sokwakik. In Western Abenaki, Piaôdagos means “makes branches fall into pieces” or “falling in pieces branches maker.” The icy windstorms of this season make the reasoning for this name abundantly clear.

The word is pronounced: pee ah OHN dah goos. The “ô”, sometimes written as “8”, is a nasal o, similar to the sound in “skunk”.

Abenaki language keeper Jesse Bruchac explains the derivation a little: the morpheme “pia-” signifies the characteristics of “crumbly, mealy, powdery”; “-ôd” or “ôt” is a morpheme for “branch”; “a” is a connector; and “-gos” is a shortened form for “gizos”, “the moon”. Added together to make a complete concept, we have Piaôdagos (roughly “February”), the falling-in-pieces (crumbly) branches moon.

The days grow a little longer as Grandfather Sun edges higher in the sky. We know there will be more snow and cold before the maple trees begin to lift their sweetness from the earth, our first sign that Sigwan, the spring, is returning from the south.