Week 52: Winter Moon

December 25 – December 31 is the 52nd week of the Gregorian calendar.  The Solar Term for this week is Winter Solstice (Dec 21 – Jan 05), and the micro-seasons for this week are “The Common Self-Heal Sprout” (Dec. 22 -Dec 26), and “The Deer Sheds its Antlers” (Dec 27 -Dec 31).

The haiku selected for this week are written by Basho, Issa, Buson, Reichhold, Kerouac, and Rosenstock.

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The 24 Solar Terms 

The 24 solar terms were created by farmers in ancient China  (206 BCE and 24 CE) to help guide their agricultural activities. Each solar term is 15 days long and is based on the climate around the city Xi’an, which was the capital of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE).⁽¹⁾

This week, we are in the Solar Term of Winter Solstice (Dec 21 – Jan 05).  The Solar Term of Winter Solstice is the 22nd Solar Term of the year. 

Dongzhi Festival

The Dongzhi Festival, also known as the Winter Solstice Festival, is a traditional festival that began in the Zhou Dynasty (1045 BCE –256 BCE).  Dongzhi translates to “winter’s extreme” is believed to be the turning point of winter.  Dongzhi marks the beginning of longer days and shorter nights that occur after the solstice.^(2,3)

Families often celebrate Dongzhi by gathering together and eating warm and hearty meals.  Some of the traditional foods for this festival are dumplings, wontons, mutton and vermicelli soup, and nine-layer cake.^(2,3) 

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The 72 Seasons

The 72-season calendar was established in 1685 by Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai.  Each season lasts for about 5 days and offers “a poetic journey through the Japanese year in which the land awakens and blooms with life and activity before returning to slumber.”⁽⁴⁾

The micro-seasons for this week are “The Common Self-Heal Sprout” (Dec. 22 -Dec 26), and “The Deer Sheds Its Antlers” (Dec 27 -Dec 31).

A challenge in translation 

The 72 Season App, which was created by the Utsukushii Kurashikata Institute, is my primary reference for information about the micro-seasons. However, I also refer to other sites like Nippon.com to gather other perspectives.  Most of the time, the sites are aligned in their translations about the seasons.  But for the season that spans Dec 27 to Dec 31, there is a discrepancy.  The 72 Season App titles the season “The Elk Sheds its Horns”, while Nippon labels the season “Deer Shed Antlers”.  While this may seem like a small difference on the surface, it highlights why translating texts between languages can be difficult.

Let’s now take a minute to explore the differences between horns and antlers, and then deer and elk.   

Horns or Antlers? 

Horns are associated with animals in the Bovidae family including cows, bison, and mountain goats. Horns are permanent, have a core of bone, and are made of keratin, which is the same substance that makes up our fingernails. Horns can grow on both males and females of some members of the Bovida family.⁽⁶⁾

Antlers are associated with animals in the Cervidae family including elk, moose, and deer.  Antlers are shed yearly, are made of bone, and grow off a pedicle.  A pedicle is a spot on the top of the animal’s head from which the antler grows.  Antlers typically only grow on males.⁽⁷⁾  

So, here is the first challenge in translation.  Horns and antlers are different. They are different in structure and the animals that they form on. Since both micro-season translations reference the shedding of something, this would point to “antlers” being the correct translation.  Horns are permanent, and antlers can be shed.  

Elk or Deer?

Elk are typically found in the northern forest of Eurasia and are known to inhabit parts of China.  Since China’s Solar Terms provided the foundation for the 72-season calendar, it is possible that when Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Shunka adapted the calendar, he could have wanted to keep the imagery of the great elk as the “embodiment of the midwinter cold of a faraway land”.⁽⁴⁾.

The Sika Deer (Cervus nippon) is a deer species native to Japan.⁽⁸⁾ This species is also known as the Japanese Deer or the Northern Spotted Deer.⁽⁹⁾  The Sika Deer were once considered a sacred animal and are still honored to this day. 

In the World Kigo Database, Chris Drake explains the importance of the deer in Japanese culture by stating. 

“[D]eer were sacred in Japanese shamanism, and the deer in the Nara park are believed to be manifestations of the three main gods of the nearby Kasuga Shrine: they act as messengers for these gods and also carry the gods when the gods want to travel between this world and the other world.

The Nara deer park is also revered by Japanese Buddhists as the manifestation in Japan of the deer park in Sarnath, India, where Shakyamuni Buddha preached his first sermon.”⁽¹¹⁾

When creating the 72 seasons, Shibukawa Shunka would have been more likely to see deer around than elk.  Also, because of the cultural significance and abundance of Sika Deer in Japan, it could easily be argued that it is likely that this season would focus on the deer. However, the hypothesis that Shibukawa Shunka wants to reference elk because they are the “embodiment of the midwinter cold” is a compelling one.  Although, I am not sure if it fits with the calendar’s focus on the local environment.

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Astronomical Season

December 31, the last day of week 52, is the 10th day past the winter solstice. This means we are in early astronomical winter. 

Cold Moon (December 26)

December’s full moon occurred on December 26. This full moon is sometimes referred to as The Cold Moon. The writers at The Farmer’s Almanac tell us the Cold Moon is “a Mohawk name that conveys the frigid conditions of this time of year when cold weather truly begins to grip us.”⁽¹²⁾

 Some other names for December’s full moon include:

• Long Night Moon from the Mohican
• Drift Clearing Moon from the Cree
• Moon of the Popping Trees from the Oglala 
• Snow Moon from the Haida and Cherokee 
• Winter Maker Moon from the Western Abenaki, and 
• Moon When the Deer Shed Their Antlers from the Dakota

The next new moon is on January 11 and the next full moon is on January 25. 

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Seasonal haiku

In The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words as selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto, “winter moon” is a relevant kigo.  Also, since the end of this week is December 31, “New Year’s Eve” and “the close of the year” are relevant kigo. 

Since the cycle of the year is different in the lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar, the authors of The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words provide us with this guidance for using New Year’s in haiku.

“In the old lunar calendar, the 1st day of the 1st month coincided roughly with the beginning of spring, and hence the New Year’s celebrations and observances took place during the first two weeks of spring. Many season words today still carry both meanings for traditionalists. But with the adoption of the Gregorian commercial calendar in 1873, the haikai community decided on a compromise: Season words specific to celebrating the New Year moved into a special “fifth season” (roughly equivalent to 1-15 Jan), and those that pertained to early spring (roughly, Feb) stayed in early spring.”⁽¹³⁾

Jane Reichhold’s A Dictionary of Haiku contains a list of season words in English that focus on her experiences in North America.  Because of this, Reichhold has various Christmas-related haiku such as “Baking for Christmas”, “Christmas Carols”, or “Christmas Day”.  All these would be relevant for this week. 

Now with all this in mind, let’s read some haiku.

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Basho

New Year’s festival
I’d like to celebrate it in the capital
with a friend
(translated by Jane Reichhold)

In The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World, William J. Higginson states, “In Basho’s day The New Year roughly coincided with the beginning of spring”.  So when Basho references New Year’s he is talking about early February. However, I thought this haiku would fit well in this week.

Issa

over one wall
the sea wind blows...
winter moon 
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

the winter moon
on my lap...
mountain home 
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

a cold moon
facing the cold
mountain temple 
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

Buson

In the stillness
an oak tree’s spirit —
the winter moon
(translated by Allan Persinger)

Reichhold

cash crop
Jesuit priests peddle
Christmas trees

Christmas
a sleigh draws homeward
all my thoughts

Kerouac

Big drinking & piano
   parties–Christmas
Come and gone–

Rosenstock

a winter moon
came out to play
alone

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Haiku Invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu referencing either a winter moon or Christmas.  

Share your haiku in the comments below, or post on your own page and link back to this post. I can’t wait to read what you write!  

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Thank You!

About the Haiku:

Basho’s haiku were retrieved from “Matsuo Bashō’s haiku poems in romanized Japanese with English translations” Editor: Gábor Terebess.  Issa’s haiku were retrieved from David G. Lanoue’s Haiku Guy.  Buson’s haiku was retrieved from Foxfire:The Selected Poems of Yosa Buson. Jane Reichhold’s haiku were retrieved from Dictionary of Haiku.  Kerouac’s haiku was retrieved from Kerouac’s  Book of Haikus.  Gabriel Rosenstock’s haiku was retrieved from Haiku Enlightenment by Gabriel Rosenstock. 

Resources:

1. “24 Solar Terms”; ChinaHighlights.com
2. “24 Solar Terms: 9 things about winter solstice”; ChinaDaily.com
3. Dongzhi Festival; Wikipedia
4. 72 Seasons App
5. “Japan’s 72 Microseasons”; Nippon.com
6. O’Brian, Bill; “A dozen facts about antlers”. U.S. Fish and Wildlife
7. Brazil, Mark; “Japanese Sika Deer”: JapanExperience.com
8. “Sika Deer”; Wikipedia
9. “Nara Park’: Wikipedia
10. “Deer sheds antlers”; US/Japan Cultural Trade Network
11. “Deer(shika)”; World Kigo Database
12. “Cold Moon: Full Moon in December 2023”; Almanac.com
13. “The New Year”; The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words. Selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto. Translated by Kris Young Kondo and William J. Higginson

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