"Once in a Blue Moon" - What's Special About Hallowe'en This Year?
@owlwings (43910)
Cambridge, England
October 30, 2020 7:32am CST
Blue moons aren't actually that uncommon, depending on which definition you use.
The oldest definition of a Blue Moon seems to be that it is "the third full moon in any season in which four full moons occur". Since there are four seasons, each of 3 months, and the moon is full approximately once a month, there are normally only three full moons in a season, but it sometimes happens that the full moon can occur four times in three months. This happens about every two or three years.
The more recent definition (and the one most often used today) is that a Blue Moon is the second full moon in any calendar month. This can happen only when a full moon occurs in the first few days of any month which is longer than 28 days. Again, these aren't that infrequent. The last Blue Moon by this definition happened on March 31, 2018 (and the one previous to that was on January 31 that year). This year, the full moon of October 31 will be a Blue Moon.
It doesn't happen very often that a full moon happens on October 31 and it is even less frequently that the full moon is visible in all time zones on that date. In fact , the last time that happened was in 1944, 76 years ago and the next will be in 2039.
If you get a good, cloudless sky this year, will you be watching to see the witches fly across the face of the moon or are there altogether too many spooky things happening this year for it to matter?
I don't remember the Hallowe'en moon of 1944 (I would have been fast asleep in bed) and I don't expect to be around in 2039, so this will be my only chance to see this rather special moon. I don't expect to see anyone testing the aerial capabilities of broomsticks, though!
15 people like this
11 responses
@wolfgirl569 (105819)
• Marion, Ohio
30 Oct 20
I will try to see it. Looks like our weather should be good. I might even fly my broom
2 people like this
@MALUSE (69373)
• Germany
30 Oct 20
I don't remember the Halloween moon of 1944, either, because I was only born in that year! :-)
If I were older, I wouldn't remember it, either, though, because the Halloween craze hadn't swapped onto the European mainland yet then.
I don't like it because it isn't part of our culture and has been promoted by business. Now everyone and their grandfather thinks it's typical for Germany, too. It isn't. It's an Irish thing which has conquered the world.
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@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
30 Oct 20
Yes, the Hallowe'en tradition as we know it (hyped up by all the people cashing in with plastic pumpkins and costumes and so on) is supposed to have originated in Ireland but actually came from America. There is very little real evidence that it was really a Celtic (Samhain) tradition at all and most of the customs associated with it - trick-and-treat, and the various games which nobody makes much of today - are also associated with other seasonal celebrations, like New Year.
Germany has Walpurgisnacht, which is a Spring festival (St Walpurga was English, by the way, but she lived and was buried in Germany) and a time when witches were supposed to hold sabbaths on the Brocken. I believe that some of those ideas/beliefs were carried to America with German immigrants and got transferred to the Hallowe'en 'traditions'.
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@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
30 Oct 20
I used to think that the moon was really blue (and, looking at a full moon, one can almost imagine that it is a little bluer than usual). Actually, it's called that because of the early illuminated calendars where, if there were two moons in a month, the second one was coloured blue to mark the fact that it didn't really belong in that month (or something like that, anyway).
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@BarBaraPrz (47256)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
30 Oct 20
Blue moon
you saw me standing alone
without a dream in my heart
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@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
30 Oct 20
@myklj999 I love the Marcel's do-wop version but I think that Mel Tormé's version is the way it should really be sung.
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
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@BarBaraPrz (47256)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
30 Oct 20
@myklj999 Sure, why not?
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@BarBaraPrz (47256)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
30 Oct 20
@owlwings I love Mel but this sounds as if he's ODed on quaaludes or something.
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@LadyDuck (471272)
• Switzerland
30 Oct 20
You bit me with this post. I collected articles about this special "Full Moon Halloween" this morning, then I was busy decorating our family room to celebrate the Halloween night tomorrow. I was not yet born 76 years ago and I will surely not be here in 2039, now I hope that tomorrow the sky will be clear.
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@LadyDuck (471272)
• Switzerland
30 Oct 20
@owlwings No problem, I read about this special Halloween moon this morning and I researched because I am curious. We d not celebrate Halloween in Italy and here in Switzerland, we do because it happened to be in the United States several times at the end of October. Some of our friends also were there during Halloween time, so we decided to have a dinner party in our home with a few friends every Halloween evening. This year we are only my husband and I.
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@Chellezhere (5703)
• United States
12 Apr 21
In 2039, I will be 71, and may very well be fast asleep.
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@FayeHazel (40243)
• United States
1 Nov 20
That is a really cool history of this astrological event
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