Moon phases

Jonathan Holmes okibjonathan at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 8 01:49:01 UTC 2006


Can anyone translate for me the Lakota names for the moon's phases? 

Euro-Americans see the moon - and identify the phases as: 
New Moon 
Waxing Crescent 
Half Moon 
Waxing Gibbous 
Full moon 
Waning Gibbous (the other half) 
Half moon (the other half) 
Waning crescent (The other half) 

As I understand it,
  "waxing" means growing or approaching full moon, 
  "waning" means shrinking or receding from full moon,
  and "gibbous" means full bodied or bulging half moon. 

At some point, I was listening to some Lakota elders discuss this.....but all I caught was Islayata hanhepi wi (or "right sided moon"). 

Presuming that Lakota culture may not have a use for all the "phases" that I have described above.....what would be the traditional way to describe the moon phases in Lakota language?


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