# Blue Moon = Bad Mojo **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 28, 1999, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-bad-mojo/399 "1999-12-28T03:01:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 1999, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-bad-mojo/399/1 "1999-12-28T03:01:00Z")
In his [“Blue Moon”](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_172.html) column – yeah, I know it’s from 1977, but the update was just posted on the site today – Cecil wrote: > [@](#): > > You occasionally get people who tell you that since ancient times a blue moon has been a good omen or a bad omen or who knows what. Nonsense. Ancient peoples didn’t use our modern calendar. They typically used a lunar calendar, in which you had exactly one full moon a month. Well, of course, if you get two full moons in a _lunar_ month, that’s **got** to be a really bad omen…you know, because your sun’s just gone nova or something like that. (cf. Larry Niven’s “Inconstant Moon”) * * * …but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans! ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-bad-mojo/399/2 "2000-01-05T13:43:00Z")
There was a comment that the correct, proper, and original meaning to “blue moon” referred to two full moons within a season…as opposed to today’s mutated meaning within one (solar) month. Well, are we splitting hairs here? A season is basically three months - although the start of a season does not coincide with the start of a month. Accepting that a season spans three solar months…in order to get four full moons in a season, wouldn’t one (solar) month have to have two full moons??? By the way, out of curiosity, does anyone know the names for the full moons besides Harvest and Hunter? I’ve never come across any kind of list. (Sorry! I’m not sure of Cecil’s link to the blue moon question.) * * * I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy - Hawkeye 4077th ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-bad-mojo/399/3 "2000-01-05T14:09:00Z")
Correction to the above from Jinx! {For methinks I “typisth” too fast for me own brain, Iago!!!} For clarity: I meant to say “four full moons within a season”! Sorry! * * * I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy - Hawkeye 4077th ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-bad-mojo/399/4 "2000-01-05T14:29:00Z")
Jinx: The link to Cecil’s Blue Moon column is in the first three words of Da Ace’s post, you can click on the words “Blue Moon” up there and you’ll get right to the column. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-bad-mojo/399/5 "2000-01-05T15:24:00Z")
Since there are approximately 13 lunar months in a spolar year, you can’t assign each named moon to a solar month. The Harvest Moon is generally tied to the Autumn Equinox, but I do not know what method is used to keep the order correct (as in the intercalary month in the Jewish lunar calendar). The names are (beginning in approximately January): Wolf Old Crust Worm Pink Flower Strawberry Thunder Sturgeon Harvest Hunter’s Beaver Long Nights * * * Tom~ ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-bad-mojo/399/6 "2000-01-05T15:26:00Z")
(Spolar years occur whenever fingers are too clumsy to follow orders–that’s most years in my case.)