Once in a Blue Moon

… is a common way of saying not very often, but what exactly is a Blue Moon?

According to the popular definition, it is the second Full Moon to occur in a single calendar month.

The average interval between Full Moons is about 29.5 days, whilst the
length of an average month is roughly 30.5 days. This makes it very
unlikely that any given month will contain two Full Moons, though it
does sometimes happen.

On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons
in every century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually
means once every two-and-a-half years. Check the Blue Moon Calculator. [Source: Once in a Blue Moon]

images/lughnasadh.gif” border=”0″ height=”50″ width=”50″>Tonight
also marks Lughnasadh. Lughnasadh is a Gaelic holiday celebrated on
August 1, although traditionally the Celts marked their days from
evening to evening, not the way we do today.

Lughnasadh is also the modern Gaelic term for the month of
August. Lughnasadh (also spelled Lunasa, Lughnasadh, or Lughnasa) is
one of the eight sabbats or solar festivals in the Wheel of the Year.
In Neo-paganism, the Wheel of the Year is the natural cycle of the
seasons, commemorated by the eight Sabbats. It is the first of the
three autumn Autumn festivals, the other two being Mabon and Samhain.

The Celts divided the year into four quarters: Samhain
(winter), Imbolc (spring), Beltane (summer), and Lughnasadh (autumn).
The Celtic new year began in November, with Samhain. In
English-speaking countries 1 August is Lammas Day, or loaf-mass day,
the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year, on which day it
was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop. In many
parts of England, tenants were bound to present freshly harvested wheat
to their landlords on or before the first day of August. In the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it is referred to regularly, it is called
“the feast of first fruits.” Some neo-pagans mark the holiday by baking
a figure of the God in bread, and then symbolically sacrificing and
eating it. [More Info]