Once in a Blue Moon

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When a full moon is not enough to meet a writer's need for the symbolic, they can use the Blue Moon for it's rarity value. They didn't coin the Stock Phrase "Once in a Blue Moon" from nothing now did they.

Now there's been much confusion over what constitutes a Blue Moon.

It actually refers to the third full moon of a season with four full moons,[1] as compared the more frequently used second full moon in the same month. Because blue moons are still known by the latter example, most of the examples below will refer to that one. However, the phrase "once in a blue moon" is much older that either of these usages, and so it appears that the "blue moon" was named for the expression and not vice versa.

You should note that an actual Blue Moon doesn't constitute the astrological term, but the effect can be caused by smoke or dust particles in the atmosphere that's usually caused by a forest fire or volcanic ash, as seen in the Real Life section.

Once in a Blue Moon is a phrase that specifically refers to an unlikely or impossible event happening, usually a One in A Million Chance.

Examples of Once in a Blue Moon include:


Anime

  • The Pokémon anime had an episode in which a group of Quagsire traveled to a city to take all sorts of ball-shaped items, which they were supposed to take upstream a river for a celebration for a blue moon. The Quagsire tried to launch the items the closer to the moon they could using water attacks, and next morning all the items returned to the city floating in the river. The citizens considered the last item to appear to be of good luck because it was supposed to be the one which got closer to the moon.

Comic Books

Film

  • Would the film The Moon is Blue count?
  • A "blue corn moon" is actually mentioned during the song "Colors of the Wind" from the animated Disney movie Pocahontas.
  • The Blue Moon Festival in The Smurfs takes place at every blue moon, which is when Papa Smurf is able to see into the future to foresee what it may hold for his little Smurfs. It also causes a portal within a waterfall to open that transports whoever enters it through time and space. The blue moon becomes an inspiration for Patrick Winslow's latest ad campaign.

Literature

Live Action Television

  • Gilligan's Island episode "Ship Ahoax". When Ginger tells Gilligan's fortune, she says to look for a ship when "the moon is blue". Sure enough, that night the moon is colored blue and a ship passes by the island.
  • On an episode of Charmed the blue moon transformed the sisters into werewolf-like beasts and no explanation of such was ever given.
  • The Pretender episode "Once in a Blue Moon" revolves around a serial killer who strikes on the second full moon of a month and leaves the message "Blue Moon Rising" behind each time.

Music

  • The musical standard "Blue Moon"

Blue Moon
You saw me standing alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own

    • There are also songs by (or sung by anyway) Toby Keith, Anna Tsuchily, and Rod Stewart named "Blue Moon."

Western Animation

  • In The Smurfs, baby smurfs are born once in a blue moon.
  • Ruby Gloom, "Once in a Blue Luna": When the moon turns blue the Luna Monster appears. Of course, nobody really believes in the Luna Monster... do they?

Real Life

  • After the Krakatoa eruption in 1883, the moon literally appeared to be blue for over 2 years.
  • The Blue Moon marshmallow in the Lucky Charms cereal.
  • Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, is literally colored blue. Guess what color its parent planet actually is!
    • Also, Rhea, the second-largest moon of Saturn, and the only moon in our Solar System to have rings around it (guess which planet does it resemble!), which is apparantly a steel-blue color.
  1. ↑ Most seasons only have three full moons.
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