Secret Lives of Words

Blue Moon March 27, 2009

Blue Moon  has  long been a favorite expression, since before I even knew what it meant much less how it came about. Now, I  always liked the Moon, and who doesn’t, and then blue happens to be a favorite color of mine.  The more I got to learn  about Blue Moon, the more I enjoyed liking this amiable phrase. I suppose the simple fact is that this term appealed to me on some deeper level.  It’s possible I just liked the way it sounded.  The gentle oo-ooh sound of vowels nestled amongst labial consonants was oddly comforting, almost infantile.  The point is, it is possible to like words without knowing what they meant. Such is the lure of language!

Blue - The color of God

Blue per se, is a wonderful word and color.  Some of you may have noted my fondness for the term Prussian Blue, already discussed.  Now,  for a Hindu, unrepentant or otherwise, the color blue has several poetic, and solemn, echos. Simply put:  ‘Tis the color of God! One of the great writers of our time Salman Rushdie, spent several wonderful passages discussing why Blue indeed is the obvious choice for the color of God. These lovely pages of writing, occurring half way through the middle of the novel Midnight‘s Children are highly recommended.  It is a matter of  fact that I was in love with  Blue even before I knew of God!

Blue is the color of Krishna and the color of Nilgiri Mountains (and the  Smokey Mountain Range). As I also learnt  later in school, it’s a  color of the River Nile.  Blue is also the color of ash, the color of Shiva, Neelakantha,  so named for the depictions of  the poison laden blue-throat of  My Good Lord Shiva. Images which I first absorbed with  wonderment and vividness from the  picture posters found in the stalls lining the temple streets in the  days of  my distant past.

The moon, of course, defined the nights of my childhood. Dinners on roof-tops under inky-blue sky lit by moon and stars; sleeping outdoors under the moon; flying lantern kites in moonlight, or  just loafing about the streets under  moonlight. A favorite children’s magazine published in a dozen Indian languages and English is named after the moon, Chandamama.

While I don’t quite recall when I fell in love with the expression Blue Moon, I am sure I heard it long before I knew its meaning.  As I learnt more, my love was cemented.

Blue Moon is rarely blue, and can in fact be even red. It occurs 7 times in a 19 year period. February is incapable of hosting one, and some years boast double blue moons!   The math and the physics of it all have fascinated nerds and nitwits alike. Phrases such as blue moon and  ‘once in a blue moon’  figure in lyricism ranging from Shakespeare to Country crooners.

Blue Moon is a moveable feast!

The Farmers’ Almanac gives descriptions of the enchanted names given to specific full moons that occur in each month of the calendar: Wolf moon, Harvest Moon, Snow Moon, etc.,  read here.  Some wonderful pictures of Blue Moon can be found here. Interactive Astronomy Pages, a fun website, and a labor of love no doubt, has a special page devoted to a clever Blue Moon date calculator.  Other good discussions can be found here,  here and  here.

It does not matter whether you believe Blue Moon should refer to the second full moon in a calendar month, or a third full moon in a season, or regard it a non-specific event of astronomy, just thinking about  Blue Moon is a wonderful way of  connecting with our sense of time and space.  Wondering about it, and focusing upon it, grounds us in a reality, and  helps us realize the make believe of  the time measurements we call clock and calender. Blue Moon connects us to a cosmos that is unceasingly amazing, mysterious and bountiful. Eventually, meditations upon the Blue Moon, connect us to the Self and to Creator. Indeed, what else is the true purpose of Word!

Much as I love to wax eloquent about Blue Moon, I must admit the best line of adoration of this charming celestial event belongs to someone else. To wit:

Blue Moon is different from the monthly or seasonal moon names as it isn’t restricted to a time of year. It is a movable feast.  -  Philip Hiscock.

A final thought on this Movable Feast:

How sad it is that so enchanting a word has somehow got caught up with so dark a mood as Blues. No wait, I shouldn’t have said ‘sad’. I should say, how odd that  Blue so lovely a color and a word when made plural yields a word so different in meaning and shade:  Blues

(More on Blues later and elsewhere)