ON the dark December nights familiar to us across Belfast and the North, the world seems to lower its voice. The air carries that sharp winter bite, the land settles into its long rest, and the sky stretches wide in a kind of ancient stillness.

It’s a season when the small, homely rituals feel almost sacred: hands curled round a hot mug, a quiet dander beneath a star-pricked sky, or a warm moment beside the fire. At this time of year, when everything pares itself back to its essentials, the final full moon of the calendar rises with a gentle insistence, reminding us of the deep beauty found in pausing.

The full moon of December 2025 arrived on Thursday past at 14:36, rising into the longest nights with a steady, silvery presence. Known traditionally as the Cold Moon, it mirrors the character of midwinter itself: crisp, bare, honest. Its name, rooted in European and North American lore, reflects a time when frost holds fast, darkness stretches its limbs, and the rhythm of life slows.

Different full moons across the year mark different labours and lessons. Where the Harvest Moon supported gathering and the Beaver Moon signalled preparation for the freeze ahead, the Cold Moon stands at the doorway of endings. It is the last full moon before the turning of the year, the point when the cycle completes its quiet circle.

In Celtic Druidic tradition, winter was a time of descent into the Earth, into the self, into the unseen currents that move beneath ordinary life. Druids understood this season as essential to regeneration; nothing grows without first withdrawing, contracting, and conserving its energy. Similarly, in Tibetan Buddhist practice, stillness is not emptiness but a fertile ground. It is the space in which insight arises, where clarity becomes possible, where we learn to release the grasping that exhausts the spirit.

The Cold Moon embodies these teachings. It symbolises:

• Rest: honouring the natural slowing of the body and mind.

• Clarity: seeing life without embellishment.

• Release: setting down what the year has asked us to carry.

• Transition: stepping gently from one cycle into the next.

In a simple sense, the Cold Moon is the exhale of the year—a soft, necessary letting-go before anything new can take shape.

Spiritually, the Cold Moon of 2025 invites us inward. It asks us to reflect, not through effort, but through spaciousness. Just as seeds lie beneath the frozen soil waiting for spring, we, too, are allowed to rest, trusting that renewal is already forming out of sight.

To work with this moon’s energy, nothing grand is required.

• Candle reflection: Light a candle and write about what you’re ready to release.

• Moonlit walk: Wrap up well, step outside, and let the night steady you.

• Winter gratitude: Note three moments from the year that warmed you.

• Quiet presence: Sit by a window and breathe with the soft winter light.

As 2025 draws to a close, may the Cold Moon bring you peace, clarity, and the gentle reminder that, even in the quietest seasons, renewal is already stirring beneath the surface.