And when I looked, the Moon had turned to gold*

The view from the front porch last night, one day short of a blue moon.

"Although the full moon occurring Saturday, July 31, 2004, will look like an ordinary full moon, it will actually be a bit extraordinary -- a blue moon," explains InfoPlease. A season usually has three moons, but every 2 1/2 to 3 years, by virtue of the difference between nature's 29.5-day lunar month and the varying lengths of our calendar months, a fourth moon slips in:

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). July 2004 will have two full moons: the first on July 2, the second on July 31 — that second full moon is called the blue moon.

An older definition for the blue moon is recorded in early issues of the Maine Farmer's Almanac. According to this definition, 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.

We're wondering what those Algonquin tribes, with their colorful epithets for each full moon, would have called this one? Their lunar names corresponded to seasonal signs important to their livelihood. Take the Full Sturgeon Moon. The Farmers Almanac explains:

The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.

Then there's the Full Fruit or Barley Moon of August, "reserved only for those years when the Harvest Moon is very late in September." This would be one of those years, when the Harvest Moon appears September 28.

But what to call this in-between moon? We were going to say how 'bout the Full Dog Days Moon -- as we're in the midst of those steamy midsummer days -- but a little Googling revealed that the Algonquins would never have associated the Dog Star, Sirius, with midsummer, as it is visible in these parts only during winter. Well, then, how 'bout the Full Summer Sale Save 30 to 40% Moon?

Update: We were mistaken about the Dog Star's visibility in New England during the summertime. While the constellation of which Sirius is a part -- Canis Majoris -- is visible in the Northern Hemisphere only in winter, the star itself, according to Wikipedia, "can be seen from every inhabited region of the Earth's surface." So the Algonquins might well have associated the Dog Star and the Dog Days of summer with tonight's full moon.

*Lyrics from "Blue Moon"

Comments

[pam]

That is truly amazing....

[goomp]

A bit of history is always a pleasure to learn or to recall. Please so advise our teachers unions.

[Sissy Willis]

Pam: I can't seem to get my comments to show up in your comments window . . . typed something in, clicked post, and nothing showed up. 'Hope you'll see this and perhaps advise me? Meanwhile, I LOVED your Meathead post!