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Blue moon sky and telescope11/21/2023 We found that the Blue Moon definition employed in the Maine Farmers' Almanac is indeed based on the seasons, but with some subtle twists. These blue moon dates fall about a month before the Northern Hemisphere winter and summer solstices, and spring and fall equinoxes, respectively, which occur on similar day numbers.Īlthough the idea of a seasonal pattern suggested itself to us immediately, verifying the details required a lot of detective work. All of the listed Blue Moons fall on the 20th, 21st, 22nd, or 23rd day of November, May, February, or August. Several clues point to a strong connection between the almanac's Blue Moons and the four seasons of the year. So where did that meaning come from? How Often Do Blue Moons Happen? These refer to more than a dozen Blue Moons, and not one of them is the second full Moon in a month. With help from Margaret Vaverek (Southwest Texas State University) and several other librarians, we obtained more than 40 editions of the Maine Farmers' Almanac from the period 1819 to 1962. Yet the almanac does not use the second-full-Moon-in-a-month definition that most news outlets quote today. But in an article entitled "Once in a Blue Moon," folklorist Philip Hiscock traced the calendrical meaning of the term "Blue Moon" to more recent times, namely to the Maine Farmers' Almanac for 1937. The notion of a "blue Moon," meaning "rare," can be traced back hundreds of years. That month contained a Fruit Moon, according to the Maine almanac's rules. A rising full Moon lights the scene in The Fishing Party, painted by Fitz Hugh Lane after a visit to the coast of Maine in August 1850. Countless news outlets have run stories about Blue Moons. Recent decades have seen widespread popular embrace of the "Blue Moon," defined as the second full Moon in a calendar month.
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