The Beaver Moon

November's full moon — named for the season beavers finish their dams and lodges before the freeze. The lore, the look, and how to see it.

When is the Beaver Moon?

Why "Beaver"?

Two explanations are usually given: it was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to secure warm winter furs; and it was when beavers themselves were busy finishing dams and lodges for the cold months. It has also been called the Frost Moon and the Mourning Moon.

What it looks like

As winter approaches the full moon climbs higher again, recovering the high path it lost through summer. The November moon is often bright and high, set against the first frosts and the long, dark evenings of late autumn.

2026: the year's supermoon streak ends here

The 2026 Beaver Moon is the third and final supermoon of the year, capping the September–October–November run. Fullness arrives at 17:53 UTC on November 24 — dusk in Europe, midday in the Americas — so Europe catches the exact moment with the Moon just rising, and North America gets two equally full nights on November 23–24 and 24–25. By late November the full moon has recovered its high winter arc: a perigee moon riding high through fifteen hours of darkness is about as much moonlight as a month can physically deliver.

An animal preparing for the same winter

The name records a deadline shared by species: November was when beavers finished reinforcing lodges and sinking their underwater food caches before the freeze — and when trappers set their last beaver traps of the season, since a winter pelt was the warmest currency of the fur trade. Colonial-era North America effectively ran on that November economy. The quieter European names for the same moon, the Frost Moon and the Mourning Moon, mark the first hard freezes and, in some older traditions, the last moon before the Yule season begins.

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