Thursday, August 30, 2012

Celebrating the Blue Moon


This Friday August 31, 2012 the moon will be in Pisces and according to many astrologer it will be a sensitive, reflective Full Moon, thanks to the heavy water energy.

I did not have the qi to write a blog about the full moon. We are still in surreal mode here after our dear Zevo's passing. So i took the liberty of posting a few links below with information on what a Blue Moon is.

This past month i have been working on a few new lines of art to wear. There at least thirty new pieces to be photographed and listed on the Planet Calamari Etsy Shop. We have decided to wait until after the Blue Moon to take on this project.

To celebrate this Full Blue Moon and the start of a new beginning, Zevo's new life as a spirit-poose and the end of a long hot summer, The Planet Calamari Etsy Shop is having a Once in a Blue Moon Sale. Take 20% off all art to wear...even the marked down pieces by using the code BLUEMOON when checking out.

May this Labor Day weekend of the Blue Moon bring you and your loved ones peace, magic and a new beginning.

jeanie marie

What is a Blue Moon?

There are in fact two definitions for a blue moon. According to the more recent definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. For a blue moon to occur, the first of the full moons must appear at or near the beginning of the month so that the second will fall within the same month (the average span between two moons is 29.5 days). The full Moon on Aug. 31, 2012, will be this type of blue moon; it will be the second full moon in one month.

The Other Kind of Blue Moon

The older definition, which is recorded in early issues of the Maine Farmer's Almanac, states that the blue moon is the third full moon in a season that has four full moons. Why would one want to identify the third full moon in a season of four full moons? The answer is complex, and has to do with the Christian ecclesiastical calendar.
Some years have an extra full moon—13 instead of 12. Since the identity of the moons was important in the ecclesiastical calendar (the Paschal Moon, for example, used to be crucial for determining the date of Easter), a year with a 13th moon skewed the calendar, since there were names for only 12 moons. By identifying the extra, 13th moon as a blue moon, the ecclesiastical calendar was able to stay on track.
For more background information on the controversy over the two definitions of blue moon, see the Sky and Telescope article, "What's a Blue Moon?" In it they explain how the two different definitions of a blue moon came about—including their own role in introducing the second, modern definition"

"Blue moons exist due to our calendar months being imperfectly synched to the lunar months. It takes 29.5 days for the moon to orbit Earth, during which sky watchers observe all of its phases. All calendar months, aside from February, have 30 or 31 days, resulting in the occasional two full moons within a single month.
While blue moons are rare, they can be predicted to take place every three years or so, with the next one scheduled to take place in July 2015."
Once in a Blue Moon 
 "Blue moon" appears to have been a colloquial expression long before it developed its calendrical senses. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first reference to a blue moon comes from a proverb recorded in 1528:
If they say the moon is blue,
We must believe that it is true.
Saying the moon was blue was equivalent to saying the moon was made of green (or cream) cheese; it indicated an obvious absurdity. In the 19th century, the phrase until a blue moon developed, meaning "never." The phrase, once in a blue moon today has come to mean "every now and then" or "rarely"—whether it gained that meaning through association with the lunar event remains uncertain.


No comments: