Once In A Blue Moon

I had a very informative YM chat w/ our beloved Love One Another Master of Love engineer Joeyhloey last night which just started with "hoy! kamusta?" then to the wasakan week 2007 Shirley recording schedule next week to the origin of the band Taken by Cars then shifted swiftly to the phrase "once in a blue moon". hahaha. Ang labo. BUT then it was interesting because do any of you actually know the explanation behind the commonly used/very popular phrase? i remember having a similar conversation w/ some of the Shirley dudes last month as we were about to go home after a gig in UP Manila w/ a very clear view of the full moon on top of our heads wondering if it was a blue moon? 

I actually had a faint idea about the explanation of the said phrase thanks to the movie "Blue Moon" Starring Eddie Garcia and Boots Anson-Roa and Dennis Trillo. Seryoso. Basically it said that the blue moon is not literally a blue moon but a very rare appearance of a certain kind of full moon hence the phrase.

I was actually quite contented w/ that explanation until that very informative YM chat w/ Joeyhloey took place. and so i made some research on the net and here it is:

http://www.obliquity.com/astro/bluemoon.html

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.

When will the 2007 Blue Moon occur? May, June or July, depending on your timezone. (HAHAHA! I TOLD YOU! BLUE MOON YUNG NAKITA NATIN SA UP MANILA! hahaha!)

Does the Moon actually change colour during a Blue Moon? No, but there have been rare occasions when the Moon really did turn blue.

Does a Blue Moon have any effect on human behaviour? It has no more effect on human behaviour than any other Full Moon. (MERON! MALAS AKO KAPAG FULL MOON LAGING OLATS PALAGI NANGYAYARI SAKIN)

Who wrote these pages, and why should we believe what we read here? His name is David Harper. He lives near Cambridge, England with his wife and two cats. He has a Ph.D. in mathematics and astronomy. He used to be a professional astronomer, but now he just does it for fun.

Haha. See, we at Ang Bandang Shirley not only like food but astronomy as well. Our bassist even wrote a song about a comet!

Love, Kathy g.