Full moon & new moon in January 2027
Written and reviewed by The Kriya Yogi · Updated 25 September 2026
January 2027 opens dark: the new moon on January 7 gives the first real blank page of the year, and the full Wolf Moon two weeks later is one of the closest full moons of 2027 — noticeably bright on a clear winter night. It is a good month for beginning something small and specific rather than something large and vague, and the sky itself cooperates: long nights, crisp air, and a moon that stays up from dusk to dawn.
Full Wolf Moon · Paush Purnima
- New York (ET): Fri, Jan 22, 7:17 AM
- Chicago (CT): Fri, Jan 22, 6:17 AM
- Denver (MT): Fri, Jan 22, 5:17 AM
- Los Angeles (PT): Fri, Jan 22, 4:17 AM
- London: Fri, Jan 22, 12:17 PM
- India (IST): Fri, Jan 22, 5:47 PM
- Sydney: Fri, Jan 22, 11:17 PM
- UTC: Fri, Jan 22, 12:17 PM
New moon: Thu, Jan 7, 3:25 PM ET
Distance at full moon: about 357,634 km (average ≈ 384,400 km).
In the sky
At about 357,600 km, the January 22 full moon sits very close to perigee, so many almanacs will call it a supermoon. The difference to the eye is modest (roughly 7% larger than an average full moon), but in cold, dry air the light on snow is striking. It rises at dusk in the east-northeast and stays up all night, riding high in Gemini and Cancer. This is also one of the best months of the year for the winter constellations away from the moonlight around new moon: Orion stands due south by mid-evening, with Sirius, the sky's brightest star, trailing below it, and the Pleiades cluster rides high overhead. On the nights either side of the January 7 new moon, a dark sky and a clear horizon make this fainter scenery easy to pick out even without a telescope.
Names and traditions
The name Wolf Moon comes from the colonial-era almanac tradition, which borrowed and reshaped various Native American and European month names; it is not a single tribe's name — older European almanacs used similar cold-season names tied to hunger and howling wolves in deep winter. In the Indian calendar this full moon is Paush Purnima, the day the Magh Mela bathing season traditionally begins at Prayagraj, with pilgrims gathering at the Sangam from before dawn. In yoga lineages the winter full moon has no fixed ritual — it is simply a good night to sit longer. Expect any specific Paush Purnima date given in a regional calendar to be a day either side of the full moon; the reckoning depends on the sunrise tithi where you are.
A practice for January
New moon, Jan 7: write one line
Not a list of resolutions. One sentence about the practice you want to still be doing in December. Keep the paper somewhere you will see it again — a journal, a wallet, the inside cover of a text you return to.
Weeks 1–2: fix the time, not the length
Same time each morning, even if it is ten minutes. Consistency outlasts intensity, and a fixed hour is easier to defend against a busy January than a fixed duration is.
Full moon, Jan 22: sit a little longer
Add ten minutes to your usual sitting and simply notice whether the mind is busier or quieter. Record it, without judgement — this is data-gathering, not a test you can fail.
Cold mornings: warm the body first
A few rounds of gentle movement or a short pranayama warm-up before seated practice makes a real difference when the room is cold and the body is stiff from sleep.
Moon phases have no proven effect on health or mood; these are markers for reflection, as they have been in many traditions.