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This week: Once Upon a Blue Moon Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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"You have to be able to appreciate these things. How many people can say it was a full moon last night and appreciate it?"
-Sandy Miller
"Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night."
-Hal Borland
"From now on we live in a world where man has walked on the Moon. It's not a miracle; we just decided to go."
-Tom Hanks |
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Once Upon a Blue Moon
Almost certainly, if you have an idiomatic familiarity with English, you've heard the expression, "Once in a blue moon," which signifies an event that is rare, but not miraculous in its rarity.
Most likely, you've heard a definition of a Blue Moon.
Probably, if you have heard such a definition, you've heard that it signifies the second full moon in a calendar month (which happens occasionally, but not all that rarely, as the moon's cycle from full to full is about 29.5 days).
This turns out not to be the case.
A detailed description of the mutating definition of Blue Moon can be found in this article , complete with graphics and calendars. Another, longer, treatment, with even more graphics, exists at this link . That last one's for true calendar geeks like me, but feel free to skim it, at least.
To summarize: Lots of people think the Blue Moon is the second full moon in a calendar month, but it turns out that a more ancient and calendrically accurate definition is "the third full moon of a season containing four full moons."
A season is by definition the period from equinox to solstice, or vice versa. Equinox and solstice are solar phenomena (or, more technically, a result of the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to its orbit - but anyway, nothing to do with the moon).
Back in the old days, when people spent more time outside instead of inside playing World of Warcraft and writing newsletter editorials, this sort of thing mattered. And not just to werewolves, either; people would use the light of the full moon to plant, harvest, and plan festivals about planting and harvesting.
So each full moon was given, by tradition, a name: Cold Moon, Hunter's Moon, Blood Moon, Harvest Moon, Wolf Moon, and so on.
The problem is, if you just gave each of twelve full moons a name, it wouldn't be long before the Cold Moon was in July, and we can't have THAT. So a Leap Moon of sorts was developed: a full moon that readjusted the moon names among the solar year so they stayed aligned with the seasons and all stayed pretty much right with the world (except for the occasional war, famine, plague, and volcanic eruption - but it must have been nice to have control over SOMEthing, even if it was only naming the full moons).
So, somewhere along the line, the intercalated moon got defined as "the third full moon in a season with four full moons," which happened every two and a half years or thereabouts, and (this part is subject to some debate as to why) became known as a Blue Moon.
Then in 1943, long after the Western world quit caring about silly things like full moon names, a lazy writer and a lazy editor slapped on the Blue Moon the definition of "second full moon in a calendar month," though it must be noted that the calendar as we use it today wasn't finalized until about the 18th century. (And they're still tweaking it.)
The new definition stuck, and started getting widely quoted, like when "nice" quit meaning "coy" and started meaning, well, nice. Except when it's used sarcastically.
Here's another, more recent article that talks about the Blue Moon thing.
So why does this matter, and why is it in the Fantasy newsletter?
Well, it really doesn't (though the assertion of the author of the last linked article that "The final decision is solely up to you." is, in my opinion, bogus), and because I'm a calendar geek. And also because you might be writing about a time before the current calendar was finalized, or another world where the moon(s) and sun(s) follow different rules. And if so, it might be good to know what the historical definition was, and why. Or maybe you're in a science fiction future setting where the moon names have regained prominence, perhaps changed, for example as a result of nuclear armageddon or some such.
It also illuminates (see what I did there?) our perception of time, which is, in the modern world, ruled by highly precise clocks, so wherever we are, whatever we're doing, we can almost always find out exactly what time it is, based on a calendar created over the millennia that bears little resemblance to the lunar calendars of old. It's a calendar that's arbitrary, really; January 1 is only loosely tied to the Winter Solstice (or Summer, for the upside-down folks in the Southern Hemisphere); a calendar that is an attempt to tie together lunar, solar, terran and other elements (one day I'll do a newsletter about why we have this weird subdivision of time known as a "week" that doesn't match up with either lunar OR solar cycles); a calendar that, in an alternative-history "now," could look quite different and still suffice to tell time. It's all an attempt to impose an order to something that, over an astronomically significant period, has none.
And that's why "the final decision is solely up to you" is wrong. A "month" as it's defined in our current calendar takes only its name from the lunar cycles. It's the result of an attempt to make the solar year come out even. To define the "blue moon" as two full moons in a calendar month is to stuff the moon into an arbitrary box. On the other hand, the seasonal definition harks back to a more natural calendar; the moments of solstice and equinox can be predicted with great precision, even by pre-technological societies, like the Mayans and whoever built Stonehenge, and it just makes so much more sense to use that to help keep the moons aligned with the seasons. That definition would hold no matter what we did with our human calendar. We could define months as "four weeks" and have thirteen of them in a year. We could do away with weeks entirely. We could abandon the solar calendar and adopt a purely lunar one, as Muslims use. Or we could do what I'd prefer, which is to build a whole new calendar with Moment Zero being based on the most significant event in history: the moment a human first stepped onto the Moon. And no matter which calendar we choose, the definition of "Blue Moon" as "the third full moon in a season with four full moons" would remain, because seasons are not changed by whatever human construct we use as a calendar.
It's likely that when the first human looked up to the sky and began to notice that the moon changes phase, we began to have a concept of this thing called "time," of births and deaths and other milestones, and we began to mark time and live our lives by the changing of the moons and the seasons. And now some physicists say that time is an illusion, a byproduct of the Second Law of Thermodynamics (entropy) or something even more esoteric.
And yet, from our mortal perspective, time marches on.
Over a long enough time frame, the moon's orbital period will change, the seasons themselves will shift, and, given enough time, the Sun will eventually expand into a red giant, its photosphere swallowing the orbit of the Earth and Moon. And so, the whole discussion can be considered silly.
As I write this, it's Sunday, November 21, and there's a Blue Moon in the sky - though it looks like pretty much every other full moon I've seen (discounting eclipses). The next Blue Moon isn't until August of 2013.
Which is, of course, after the Mayan calendar expires, at which point, it really won't matter. |
A few Fantasy items that use the moon:
Science Fiction, of course, usually treats the moon a bit differently:
Though sometimes, the boundaries are blurry:
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Last time, in "Fantasy Newsletter (October 27, 2010)" , I talked about costumes.
Singular Scribbler  :
Hello there!
Your newsletter on costumes were very interesting! The whole time I was trying to figure out how to connect that to my characters. I sometimes have difficulty deciding what they should wear. Sure, there are the standard guidelines of time period and climate,but how do I give them a little bit of personal flare without being too extravagant? I find ways here and there to bumble through, but I was wondering if you had any suggestions.
Thanks and keep it up!
Have you ever read one of those stories set in an earlier time period, say Elizabethan or Victorian or whatever, and the author proceeds to spend paragraph after paragraph in loving, faithful, flowery, ethereal description of someone's ball gown, or wedding dress, or some such? Well, I've tried, and I end up skimming those paragraphs. My own characters are lucky to be wearing clothes at all. Hence, I'm exactly the wrong person to ask. Give me a good action sequence any day. I'm going to punt this one back to the other readers. Readers?
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling  :
Costumes are interesting, as you never know what you'll actually end up wearing.
Submitted item: "Unbelievable Theft: Stolen Life" [13+]
Hopefully, at some point, you DO know what you'll end up wearing.
Than Pence  :
I liked your article about costumes. I haven't dressed up for Halloween in a few years. The last time, I went as a Cracker Barrel waiter. Everyone thought it was hilarious because I had quit the Barrel the year before and most of my friends at the party were made when I worked there. So it was perfect!
Sometimes, the easiest costumes are the more effective.
Jay's debut novel is out now! :
Really good suggestions, Robert!
I just recently had to stop and think about the style of clothing that the characters in my novel are going to wear!  This seems like a pretty extreme oversight, perhaps, but it simply had NOT occurred to me that maybe denim and cotton jersey might not still be standard issue in the deep future I figured it out, but it was a weird thing for me to have to stop and think about... and really important as it turns out! (I am apparently not a detail oriented writer, it seems! ROFL)
In my stories of the future, I cheat and have them all wear "jumpsuits." Or I stay silent about it. Yeah, it's kind of a cliche, and I'd want to flesh that out before (theoretical) actual publication, but for some reason I have a better grasp on the possible technology, mores and customs of the future than I do the clothes.
LJPC - the tortoise :
Hi Robert!
I really enjoyed the newsletter about funny costumes and make-up. Your editor's picks were excellent - thanks for the heads up - I really enjoyed them. 
-- Laura
And thank you for the comment!
Submitted item:
greymuir:
Hi, I'm a newbie and would like to offer my novel for your members review. It's a fantasy where the whole world is "the Mountain", and sheep live in "the Meadow" guided by the Shepherd who's rarely seen. In it animals talk and a young sheep dreams of being a wolf. The wolf pack parallels a gang and some violence is scattered, but implicit in the life of the Wolves. I'm seeking advice on parts that detract from the story /moral. A Christian theme plays lightly through it all, heavier near the end where the moral's more clearly stated.
There is tragedy and loss, hate and love, friendship and trust, honor and salvation. There is also humor, bad puns (sorry), and some light-heartedness among the characters. There is a couple of references to drug use (jimsonweed in the story) that are intended to discourage it among young readers. Suggestions here would also be appreciated.
Hopefully I have not ruined the story for you. There is much more to it than I have let out of the bag here.
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And that's it for me for November! Hopefully you'll write more often than once in a blue moon. Until next time,
DREAM ON!!! |
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Fantasy: November 23, 2010 Issue [#4090]
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