Blue moon: what it is, what it is not and how it influences you

On the night of Wednesday 30 to Thursday 31 August 2023 we will be able to see what is popularly known as blue Moon , a phenomenon that happens approximately every two or three years and that this year occurs exactly on the 31st of the morning. The next Blue Moon, according to the lunar calendar, will be in May 2026. But Do you know what the blue moon is? What color is it really? How does it affect you?

Here we tell you, but first you have to know that this year this Blue Moon is also a supermoon, the third supermoon of the year and also the most prominent. Occurring very close to lunar perigee, the time when the Moon is closest in its orbit to Earth, it will appear larger and brighter than usual.

What is the blue moon?

Surely you remember that singers like Billie Holiday or Frank Sinatra, among many others, entrusted their longing for love to a blue moon in a famous song. Blue moon you saw me standing alone, without a dream in my heart…

Now, that melancholy-inspiring blue moon has nothing to do with the lunar phenomenon that occurs this year. In fact, the Blue Moon, or blue moon in English, it is neither sad nor truly blue.

blue Moon is nothing more than the name given to the second full moon of the month, something that occurs from time to time, although there is a variant: the seasonal blue Moon, which would be a fourth full Moon within the same season. We will have a seasonal Blue Moon in August 2024 next year.

13 full moons in a year: 2 in the same month or 4 in the same season

If you retrieve a 2020 lunar calendar, you will see that in October there were two full moons, one at the beginning of the month and one at the end, specifically on the 1st and 31st. The one on the 31st, Halloween night, was a famous Blue Moon. This year, in August 2023, this phenomenon happens again: We had a full moon on Tuesday, August 1, and we will have it again on Thursday, August 31, at dawn. And it is that 2023 is once again a year with 13 full moons.

This is because the full moon occurs every 29.5 days, which would be the duration of a lunar month. Therefore, if the full Moon falls at the beginning of the month, there may be time for the Moon to look full again at the end of that same month. In 2018 we even had two blue Moons in the same year, in January and March, a very unusual phenomenon that also left February without a full Moon, which is popularly known as the “black Moon”.

In the years when there is a blue Moon we have 13 full moons instead of 12. At the same time, it may be the case that a season counts that year or a different one, depending on how it falls, with 4 full moons, instead of 3, which is usual.

The third full moon of a season with four full moons is known as seasonal blue moon and it is usually reflected in the farmers’ almanacs. That is the blue Moon that we will have next year, the August 19, 2024. This year we will have to settle for three full summer moons, but next year we won’t be able to complain: four summer nights with a full moon!

How is it possible that there is a seasonal blue Moon?

The seasons always occur between a solstice and an equinox, or vice versa, and last three months. They normally have three full Moons, but when the first full moon falls very close to the solstice or equinox which opens the season, there may be scope for a fourth full moon before the closing equinox or solstice, respectively.

This phenomenon, like the monthly blue moon, occurs with some frequency, also every 3-4 years. For the next seasonal blue light, after next year, we will have to wait until May 20, 2027.

What does not happen so often is that a monthly blue moon and a seasonal blue moon coincide in the same year. This phenomenon will not occur until the year 2048, when we will have a monthly blue moon on January 31 and a seasonal blue moon on August 23.

Why is it called blue if it is not blue?

Name misleads and much has been speculated about why it is called that, without there being a clear answer.

The most widespread theory is that it comes from medieval English. belewewhich means “betray”, and which later led to blue, “blue”. Originally, then, it would have referred to a treacherous moon.

However, other theories point to possible origins of the most varied, such as that in the past it was believed that this Moon brought bad luck (the color blue is associated with sadness) or that the name comes from the English expression eleven every blue moonused to refer to something that goes from grapes to pears.

Be that as it may, the second full moon of a month, or in its case of a season, it’s not really blue.

Sometimes the Moon looks blue, but it’s not the same

Indeed, the moon can be seen blue in other circumstances. And, in this case, we could say that the phenomenon is rare and infrequent.

What causes it to stain color is the presence of ash dust or smoke in the atmosphere, when it comes to medium-sized particles. The particles scatter red light and make the Moon appear blue. Logically, the Moon does not have to be full to see this color.

Some Volcanic eruptions have caused this phenomenon throughout history, such as the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia in 1883, El Chichón in Mexico in 1983, Saint Helena in the United States in 1980, or Pinatubo in the Philippines , in 1991.

But, unless the volcanoes surprise us, we will not see the Moon in blue this year. A Forest fire yes it could in some cases make the Moon look bluish.

How the blue moon influences us

We have already seen that the blue Moon is not blue and that it does not have to make us feel sad. Or no more than any full moon can make us feel, if that’s the case. However, farmers and all those who look at the influences of the Moon on Earth may want to take it into account.

the blue moon It’s just another full moon and this is how its influence will have to be understood, without there being anything special because it is called blue or because it coincides in the calendar with another in the same month: the coincidence is not magical, but rather the result of the way in which we have structured the calendars, such and as we will see later.

Even so some people celebrate their rituals to honor their influence. Full moon It is related to the culmination and consummationis considered a good influence to realize projects.

At full moon time physical energy is renewed quickly, although the moment can also be accompanied by increased agitation and sometimes insomnia. The full Moon is also considered favorable for meditation.

In August 2023, the extra full moon of this summer considered a blue moon occurs at the beginning of its downward curve in the northern hemisphere (and ascending in the southern hemisphere), coinciding with a flower period according to the Biodynamic Agriculture Calendar by Maria Thun.

In general, it is considered that rising moon the sap of the plant is directed with more force upwards. This makes the periods of the ascending moon good for grafting and for harvesting juicier fruits.

Instead, the descending moon carries plant fluids down to the roots. That is why in the periods of the descending moon it is recommended to harvest tubers, prune, replant or cut down.

How often does a blue moon occur?

The answer is simple: approximately every two and a half years or every three years we can have a blue moon. Most years with a blue moon there will be only one, that is, only one month with a double full moon, but sometimes the unusual phenomenon of two blue moons in the same year occurs, as happened in 2018 and as will happen again. in 2037.

To find out why this phenomenon of a double full moon occurs in one month or blue Moon, it is convenient to understand how the lunar calendar works with respect to the solar calendar and, above all, what a Metonic cycle is.

He sun calendar is based on the time it takes the Earth to revolve around the Sun. Its division by months does not correspond to the lunar cycleswhich last 29.5 days, although calendars usually include both aspects, the division by months and, within these, the corresponding part of each lunar cycle.

He metonic cycle corresponds to the time it takes for the lunar calendar to synchronize or realign itself with the solar calendar, that is, to repeat and coincide the behavior of the moon and the days of each month.

And how long does that Metonic cycle last? Well nothing less than 235 lunar monthswhich is equivalent to 19 calendar years per month.

And therein lies the secret: in 235 lunar months we see 235 full moons, but only 228 solar months elapse. We have, then, 7 moons more than months throughout 19 years, which are what make some years have 13 moons instead of 12 and, therefore, blue moon.

Those 7 extra moons spread over 19 years give us the frequency with which the blue moon appears: exactly every 2.7 years.

So we can anticipate that we will have a blue moon in August 2023, in May 2026, again twice in January and March 2029… and we will continue counting.