Moroz is asteroid #16036 and also known as 1999 GV8. Moroz was discovered by the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search (LONEOS) at the Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory. The asteroid Hermes was later rediscovered by LONEOS too. Although LONEOS has Near-Earth Object in the name, Moroz is a very usual Main Belt Asteroid.

Moroz is named after Vasily Ivanovich Moroz (Василий Иванович Мороз), who lived from 1931 until 2004 and was a professor at Moscow State University and researcher at the Institute of Space Research. He was a leader in the Russian planetary exploration program. He was a specialist in the atmospheres of Mars and Venus. This is already everything, which is publicly known about Vasily Ivanovich Moroz (Василий Иванович Мороз).

But moroz (мороз) is also a translatable Russian word and means frost. This is a discomfort in winter, but the Russian word means much more. Moroz (Мороз) is the winter spirit, but at Twelfth Day or Epiphany, Ded Moroz (Дед Мороз) or “grandfather frost” brings presents to children. Because many western people are incredibly ignorant, so I better explain here that Twelfth Day or Epiphany is the day, when the three Biblical Magi, in other languages called “the Three Kings” or “the Three Saints”, visited the just born Jesus and brought presents. So this day should actually be the real Christmas Day. Many christians see this (wrongly) as the origin of birthday presents as well as the origin of Christmas presents. Twelfth Day or Epiphany is also the New Year Day of the Gregorian Calendar. Hence some Orthodox Christians are celebrating Christmas with gift-giving on January, 1st. Ded Moroz (Дед Мороз) is also known by the affectionate forms Morozko (Морозко) and Dédushka Moróz (Дедушка Мороз). Morozko (Морозко) is his original name as the spirit of winter. Ded Moroz (Дед Мороз) is known as Dzied Maróz (Дзед Мароз) in Belarus, Did Moróz (Дід Мороз) in the Ukraine, and Dyado Mraz (Дядо мраз) in Bulgaria. Other Slavic countries know him too, but did replace him with the western Santa. Ded Moroz (Дед Мороз) is known in some non-Slavic cultures too, for example as Senis Šaltis in Lithuanian or as Näärivana in Estonian. Ded Moroz (Дед Мороз) lives in the taiga, has a long white beard, wears a heel-length fur coat in blue and white, a semi-round fur hat, and a long magical staff or scepter, which freezes everything, which is touches with its tip. Ded Moroz (Дед Мороз) brings in person presents to well-mannered children and is riding a sleigh for this purpose. The sleigh is drawn by reindeer (the origin of Santa’s reindeer sleigh!) or three white horses. Ded Moroz (Дед Мороз) is always accompanied by his granddaughter and helper Snegurochka (Снегурочка), whose name means “snowflakelet”.

Astrological forces manifest in Biblical tales and later christian legends as well as in other mythologies. So Moroz can represent the most popular figure of Orthodox Christendom as well as indicating literal frost and freezing. I have no application in mind for either of the possibilities. An asteroid, especially a common one, stays a minor astrological force only.