Tim used the turn of phrase ‘once in a blue moon’ in a grammar example somewhere else on the Agora. I used to think that it was a euphemistic ‘never’ - in that the moon is never blue. However, I was corrected, and told that it means ‘very rarely’.
After a little research, I realised that, because the moon’s phases repeat approximately every 29½ days, it is possible to have two full moons in one calender month, and thirteen in one calendar year. Then I thought about some other moon names that are traditional - Paschal Moon, Harvest Moon and Hunters’ Moon. I found an excellent investigation into this on the Proceedings of the Friesian School website. Either the traditional moon names are linked with the calendar month or with a zodiacal house (that’s just a 30° arc of the ecliptic: nothing astrological):
The Blue Moon is easy to work out if you name the moons by calendar month. It’s simply the second full moon in a given calendar month. However, the article shows that it’s possible to have two blue moons in one year and no Wolf Moon. So, it seems the best method is the zodiacal one. Here the Blue Moon is the third full moon in a given astronomical season (solstice to equinox, and equinox to solstice) when there are four full moons in that season. This conveniently makes the Paschal Moon the same one as is used to date Pesach and Easter (as long as the tables used to calculate these festivals are astronomically accurate).
There seems to be widespread evidence for the naming of moons. It seems that there was/is an important system of moon naming in some American cultures. I think the names above reflect a once well-known European system of moon names.
I find this fascinating. Please fascinate me with whatever you can find about moon names and blue moons.
The Farmer’s Almanac gives these:
• Full Wolf Moon - January
also Full Snow Moon
• Full Snow Moon - February
also Full Hunger Moon
• Full Worm - March
also Full Crow Moon, Full Sap Moon
• Full Pink Moon - April
also Full Sprouting Grass Moon, Full Fish Moon
• Full Flower Moon - May
also Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon
• Full Strawberry Moon - June
also in Europe, Rose Moon
• The Full Buck Moon - July
also Full Thunder Moon, Full Hay Moon
• Full Sturgeon Moon - July
also Full Red Moon, Green Corn Moon
• Full Fruit or Barley Moon - August
• Full Harvest Moon - September
• Full Hunter’s Moon - October
• Full Beaver Moon - November
also Full Beaver Moon, Frosty Moon
• The Full Cold Moon - December
also Full Long Nights Moon
Notice two sets of names for July.
I have other lists, I’ll need to hunt for them…
gailr
Per Edain McCoy Appalachian folklore moon names:
Snow Moon
Seed Moon
Budding Moon
Leaf Moon
Blossom Moon
Strawberry Moon
Oak Moon
Blackberry Moon
Corn Moon
Vine or Thistle Moon
Apple or Pear Moon
Blood Moon
Holly or Blue Moon
New England folklore moon names:
Wolf Moon
Snow Moon
Worm Moon
Pink Moon
Flower Moon
Strawberry Moon
Buck or Hot Moon
Green Corn or Barley Moon
Water Moon
Harvest Moon
Hunter’s Moon
Beaver Moon
Cold Moon
(The two previous are somewwhat combined to make the FA list.)
Z Budapest’s lists:
Cold or Earth Renewal Moon
Quickening or Wild Moon
Storm Moon
Wind, Seed or Budding Trees Moon
Flower, Hare or Frogs Return Moon
Strong Sun or Mead Moon
Blessing Moon
Corn or Barley Moon
Harvest Moon
Blood Moon
Mourning ro Snow Moon
Long Night’s Moon
Blue Moon
I would imagine that there are as many lists as there are cultures of indigenous people with agricultural calendars.
I am feeling distinctly elfin as I add my third post!! Earth Calendar has a nice list as well.
Names for the January Moons include Chaste Moon, Cold Moon, Disting Moon, Moon of Little Winter, Quiet Moon, Snow Moon, Wolf Moon.
Names for the February Moons include Big Winter Moon, Horning Moon, Hunger Moon, Ice Moon, Red Cleansing Moon, Storm Moon, Sun Moon, Quickening Moon, Wild Moon.
Names for the March Moons include Crow Moon, Hertha’s Moon, Lenten Moon, Moon of the Snow-blind, Moon of Winds, Plow Moon, Renewal Month, Sap Moon, Seed Moon, Worm Moon
Names for the April Moons include Growing Moon, Hare Moon, Seed or Planting Moon, Planter’s Moon, Budding Trees Moon, Eastermonath (Eostre Month), Ostarmanoth, Pink Moon, Green Grass Moon.
Names for the May Moons include Hare Moon, Merry or Dyad Moon, Bright Moon, Flower Moon, Frogs Return Moon, Thrimilcmonath (Thrice-Milk Month), Sproutkale, Winnemanoth (Joy Month), Planting Moon, Moon When the Ponies Shed.
Names for the June Moons include Mead Moon, Moon of Horses, Lovers’ Moon, Strong Sun Moon, Honey Moon, Aerra Litha (Before Lithia), Brachmanoth (Break Month), Strawberry Moon, Rose Moon, Moon of Making Fat.
Names for the July Moons include Hay Moon, Wort Moon, Moon of Claiming, Moon of Blood (because of mosquitoes), Blessing Moon, Maedmonat (Meadow Month), Hewimanoth (Hay Month), Fallow Moon, Buck Moon, Thunder Moon.
Names for the August Moons include Corn Moon, Barley Moon, Dispute Moon, Weodmonath (Vegetation Month), Harvest Moon, Moon When Cherries Turn Black.
Names for the September Moons include Harvest Moon, Wine Moon, Singing Moon, Sturgeon Moon, Haligmonath (Holy Month), Witumanoth (Wood Month), Moon When Deer Paw the Earth.
Names for the October Moons include Blood Moon, Harvest Moon, Shedding Moon, Winterfelleth (Winter Coming), Windermanoth (Vintage Month), Falling Leaf Moon, Ten Colds Moon, Moon of the Changing Season.
Names for the November Moons include Snow Moon, Dark Moon, Fog Moon, Beaver Moon, Mourning Moon, Blotmonath (Sacrifice Month), Herbistmanoth (Harvest Month), Mad Moon, Moon of Storms, Moon When Deer Shed Antlers.
Names for the December Moons include Cold Moon, Oak Moon, Wolf Moon, Moon of Long Nights, Long Night’s Moon, Aerra Geola (Month Before Yule), Wintermonat (Winter Month), Heilagmanoth (Holy Month), Big Winter Moon, Moon of Popping Trees.
My favorite, for a fetching combination of folklore and science, is…Disting Moon!
I had to do a little search to find Disting. It seems to be the Old Norse name for what Bede calls Mother’s Night. It comes from disir, ‘women’, and seems to have been celebrated at the winter solstice, or Yule, or halfway between then and the vernal equinox, or Candlemas.
I suppose full moons were important to harvesters and hunters because it allowed them to do their business into the lighter night. It must have been useful too for festivals in a time before electric lighting.
Not just women, Garzo. The "diser" (Sw.; pl.) were female deities, possibly fertility godesses. They characteristically appear as a collective. "-dis-" is not uncommon in place names in Sweden and Norway.
The distingen (pl.; old Sw. disting) were the thing sessions formerly held in Uppsala at Candlesmass.
From what I understand, the waxing and waning of the moon is important because of its affect on growth patterns. There are old farmers’ tales of when to sow and when to reap, which have their basis on the phases of the moon. It’s that tidal "thing" and the gravitational effect the moon has on, not only the earth itself, but also all creatures living thereon.
TRANSLATION
by K. C. Hanson
(Adapted from Albright 1969:320)
Two months are harvest
Two months are planting
Two months are late (planting)
One month is hoeing flax
One month is barley-harvest
One month is harvest and feasting
Two months are (vine-)pruning
One month is summer fruit
Abijah
INTERPRETATION
August?September
October?November
December?January
February
March
April
May?June
July
Thank you, Flaminius. The ancient calendars of Mesopotamia and Palestine were lunisolar - the months were in step with the moon’s phases. The barley harvest is associated with the month of Nissan. Its full moon bringing about the venerations of Pesach/Passover. The full moon of the seventh month, Tishri, corresponds to ‘Harvest’ on the Gezer calendar, and is the feast of Sukkot/Tabernacles. The month of ‘summer fruit’ is Av, containing the feast of Tu b’Av, or Vine Harvest.
Once again, Michael Quinion has something to say about blue moons. Perhaps what I used to believe, that a blue moon was a ‘never’, was not so wrong after all.
Another Jewish fullmoon celebration is Tu b’Shvat or the fullmoon of January (this happens to be the last month of the Jewish calendar by the way). This day is considered to be the new year for trees (that is, they age a year on that day, no matter when in the year they have been planted).
Michael Quinion
Astronomers say that "two full moons in one month" type of blue moon is actually quite frequent. There is a month with two full moons in it rather more than once every three years. That’s because, though moon and month are intimately related words, all our months apart from February are a little longer than the interval between two full moons. Much rarer is to have two blue-moon months in one year. This happened this year, as both January and March had two, whilst poor old February had no full moon at all. The next years in which this happens are 2018 and 2037. Now that’s what I really call once in a blue moon.
Here Quinion talks about a 19-year cycle of lunisolar calendar. I would call two blue moons in a year blublue moon. The Jewish calendar concludes a machzor, or cycle by repeating the month of Adar (corrensponding to February). The leap month occurs in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14 and 17 as well.
Is the current Jewish month Tammuz or Av? When is the changing date between the two?
Buck Moon
This Moon coincides with the time when new antlers of buck deer push out from their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, thunderstorms being now most frequent. Sometimes also called the Full Hay Moon.
Sturgeon Moon
A time when this large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water like Lake Champlain is most readily caught. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon, because the moon rises looking reddish through sultry haze, or the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.
Buck moon occured in July and Sturgeon will occur in August.
Since I am highly versed in astronomy and similar mathematical disciplines, I would like to add some scientific explanations.
All the phases are cyclical, the most noteworthy being the so-called Metonic Cycle that was independently discovered by the Greek astronomer Meton (born about 460 BC). This is a 19 year cycle, after which time the phases of the Moon are repeated on the same days of the year, or approximately so. For instance, there is a Full Moon on March 18, 2003. Nineteen years hence, in 2022 there’ll be another Full Moon on March 18.
Counting forward from any given phase of the Moon, the preceding phase will occur in 2 years, on or very nearly on the same calendar date. As an example, in 2003, we have a full Moon scheduled on March 18, and in 2005, the First Quarter Moon will occur on March 17.
After 8 years, the same lunar phases repeat, but occurring one or two days later in the year. The Greeks called this 8-year cycle the octaeteris. Indeed, in 2011, a Full Moon occurs on March 19.
Finally, in our Gregorian Calendar, 372 years provides an excellent long period cycle for the recurrence of a particular phase on a given date. Thus, we know with absolute certainty that the same Full Moon that shines down on us on March 18 of 2003 will also be shining on March 18 in the year 2375. ;)
[quote author=Elf link=board=idiom;num=1087431111;start=0#12 date=07/15/04 at 11:04:08]Since I am highly versed in astronomy and similar mathematical disciplines, I would like to add some scientific explanations.
Do you also play the trumpet?
The lunar cycle is quite erratic. It’s period averages to 29,5 days. This gives a rather awkward 12,368267058 lunations per year. Lunisolar calanders, like the Chinese and Hebrew calendars, have 12 lunar months to a year, and add an additonal month every so often to make up the shortfall. The best way to work out how often you need to add an additional month is by a process of continued fractions. The first iteration is to add another month every second year; that gives 12,5 lunations per year, which is slightly too much. The second iteration gives an extra month every three years; that gives 12,3r lunations per year, which is too few. The third iteration is to add three extra months over an eight-year period; that gives 12,375 lunations per year, which is now slightly too much. The fourth iteration is to add four extra months over an eleven-year period; that gives 12,36rr lunations per year. The fifth iteration is to add seven extra months over a nineteen-year period; that gives 12,368421 lunations per year, which is a pretty fine approximation. The sixth iteration suddenly gets quite unwieldy, it is to add 123 extra months over a 334-year period; that gives 12,368263 lunations per year, which is accurate but awkward.
The Metonic cycle is the nineteen-year one. It was used by the Babylonians and Greeks, and is still the basis of the Hebrew calender.
We are currently on 26th Tammuz (15th July). The month of Tammuz began on 20th June, and the month of Av will begin on 19th July. Using the city of Jerusalem for referrence, the new moon at the end of June occurred at 20:27 UT on 17th June. As can be seen, the Hebrew calender runs slightly behind the new moons. This is partly because the beginning of the month is considered to be the appearance of the first crescent (molad) rather than the moment of new moon, and also, the whole calender revolves around the calculation of the molad after the autumnal equinox (Molad Tishri), which may be postponed (dehiyyot) for a day or two for various calendrical and religious reasons.
It is not quite true that lunations repeat on the same solar calendar dates every eight years. The statement is not entirely true, yet more true, for a period of 334 years. However, an eight-year period should give only a few days error at most.
