Blue Moon

[barfly]

Does anyone know, is that event related to astrology? I had an argument with my pen-pal, who says that Blue Moon is astrological event (a Blue Moon occurs when there are two Full Moons successively in the same sign).
And she said, that she red it from a book. But didn't say which book. Anyone knows? Or she's just a plain liar?

31-st July is Blue Moon (Second Full Moon in a calendar month) :)

[Stitch]

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bluemoon1.html

[Mercutio]

Ok, so this is not astrology, but Once in a very blue moon (http://www.mixed-up.com/lyrics/folk/show.html?std=veryblue) is just a great song. Either performed by Patrick Alger, who wrote it, or by Nanci Griffith, who made it her theme song.

More on topic...the Blue Moon is a great example of how we can generate some special importance from the juxtaposition of a natural (lunar) cycle with an arbitrary (calendar) time-period. The second full moon is no different from the first, but it gets its own name, its own songs, its own brewery (http://www.beercollections.com/Breweries/Colorado/Blue_Moon_Brewing.htm) (ok, really a disguised version of Coors), its own parties...

It seems to me to be similar to numerology--arbitrary numerical relationships are given importance as if there was some underlying significance...

Personally, I think the full moon is beautiful enough. It is an insult to think it needs us to make stuff up to make it more so.

[Peter Morris]

Twice within the same sign - thats a new one on me. I'd previously heard twice within a calendar month, never any astrological significance. Besides, that appears to be a later backformation.

Here's a couple of articles on the origin.
http://www.wordorigins.org/index.htm
http://www.word-detective.com/back-x.html#bluemoon