Appalachian History

Ring out the old
Ring in the new
Ring out the false
Ring in the true.

New calendar today; get out your Farmer's Almanac and check the heavens for a preview of the year ahead. Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 last night were treated to a so-called blue moon. The next ones will not appear until Aug. 2, 2010 and Aug. 31 2010.

As to where the phrase 'Once in a blue moon' comes from, one explanation connects it with the word "belewe" from the Old English, meaning, "to betray." Perhaps, then, the moon was "belewe" because it betrayed the usual perception of one full moon per month. "Yf they saye the mone is belewe, We must beleve that it is true," says William Barlow, the Bishop of Chichester [England], in the Treatyse of the Buryall of the Masse, 1528. There are twelve full moons in most years, which means that three full moons occur during most seasons. One season in ten contains four full moons; hence the third moon that occurs in such a season would be the 'belewe,' or 'blue,' moon.

Meantime, the full moon this month is actually called the 'Old Moon,''Moon After Yule,' or 'Wolf Moon.' The Cherokee called it 'The Cold Moon--Unolvtani.' They usually hold a Cold Moon Dance in the community, marking the passing or ending of one cycle of seasons and welcoming the beginning of the new cycle. The Shawnee called it the 'Severe Moon--Ha'kwi kiishthwa.'For these Native Americans, Pepoonwi rules this half of the year. This grandfather sits in the north at ice mountain. He carries the cold weather, but flees before the mild warm winds of Shawaki.

sources: www.starsandscopes.net/glossary.php?class=MoonName
www.farmersalmanac.com/what-is-a-blue-moon
www.shawnee-traditions.com/ShawneeMoons.html