Another Blue Moon
Not the standard two moons in a month Blue Moon. Something a little different.
Seems the ancients had things tidily divided up into 3 moons a quarter. but every now and then we would have one extra moon leaving us with a total (hear the drum roll?) of 13 a year.
Each solar calendar year contains roughly eleven days more than the lunar year of 12 lunations. The extra days accumulate, so every two or three years (7 times in the 19-year Metonic cycle), there is an extra full moon.
Long ago this was bad. Very bad. For one thing, it upset the calenders of the early Roman church with their carefully ordered feast days and holidays. Thus leading to the number 13 being considered "unlucky".
The pagans had each moon named and this "extra" moon was simply called the "blue moon" which kept everything orderly.
The next blue moon will be August 21, 2013
Until then!
My sister and I were just discussing this!
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