On October 31, 2020, we saw something we hadn't seen since March 31, 2018. A Blue Moon.
A Blue Moon is not blue in color. It's the second Full Moon of a calendar month. Since the lunar cycle is roughly 29.5 days, a Blue Moon doesn't occur very often, thus the idiom, Once in a blue moon.
At 28 or 29 days, February is a special month. It can't have two Full Moons, and about once every 19 years, it doesn't even have one Full Moon. When there is no Full Moon in a month, we call it a Black Moon. The last Black Moon occurred in February 2018, when there were two Full Moons in January and March, also known as a double Blue Moon. The next Black Moon will occur in 2037.
The Blue Moon isn't the only Full Moon with a name. For millennia, people across Europe, as well as Native American tribes,
named the months after features they associated with the seasons in the
Northern Hemisphere, and many of these names are very similar or
identical. Some Native names are often attributed to tribes who lived in
a vast area stretching from New England to Lake Superior, and whose
languages are related.
All the Full Moons have names--many names. Here are some of them:
January -> Wolf Moon named after howling wolves. Other names are Moon After Yule, Old Moon, or Ice Moon.
February -> Snow Moon named after the snowy conditions. Other names are Storm Moon, or Hunger Moon due to the scarce food sources during mid-winter.March -> Worm Moon named after the earthworms that come out at the end of winter. Other names are Crow Moon, Crust Moon, Sap Moon, Sugar Moon, Death Moon, or
Chaste Moon.
April -> Pink Moon named after the pink flowers – phlox – that bloom in the early spring. Other names are Sprouting Grass Moon, Fish Moon, Egg Moon, or Paschal Moon because it is used to calculate the date for Easter.
May -> Flower Moon named after the flowers that bloom during this month. Other names are Corn Planting Moon, Hare
Moon, or Milk Moon.
July -> Buck Moon to signify the new antlers that emerge on deer buck's foreheads around this time. Other names are Thunder Moon, Wort Moon, or Hay Moon
August -> Sturgeon Moon named after the large number of fish in the lakes where the Algonquin tribes fished. Other names are Green Corn Moon, Barley Moon, Fruit Moon, Grain Moon, or Red Moon.
September -> Harvest Moon if the September Full Moon is the closest full moon to the September Equinox (around Sept 22). Other names are Corn Moon, Full Corn Moon, or Barley Moon.
October -> Harvest Moon if the October Full Moon is the closest full moon to the September Equinox (around Sept 22). Other names are Hunter’s Moon, Dying Grass Moon, Blood Moon, or Sanguine Moon.
December -> Cold Moon to signify the beginning of winter. Other names are Moon Before Yule, Long Night Moon, or Oak Moon.
To be honest, until today, I'd only heard of a few of them, but there are so many interesting names. Now I'm thinking I need a full moon in my next story--but which one?
Next month, I'll present my new novel, Mishandled Conviction. Until then Happy Reading & Stay safe.
Many hugs!
JS
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