Where does the term once in a blue moon come from and what does it mean?

Answer 1

There are in fact two definitions for a blue moon. According to the more recent definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. For a blue moon to occur, the first of the full moons must appear at or near the beginning of the month so that the second will fall within the same month (the average span between two moons is 29.5 days). June 2007 will have two full moons: the first on June 1, the second on June 30—that second full moon is called the blue moon. Means not very often!!!!

Answer 2

A blue moon is when two full moons occur in the same month. Because the cycle of the moon is about the length of a month, this only occurs once or so a year. It's not extremely rare, but it means something that doesn't happen very often.

Answer 3

A "blue moon" is the second full moon in a month that has two full moons. This happens about once every three years.
So the phrase "once in a blue moon" means that it's something that happens, but not very often.

Answer 4

Once In A Blue Moon is also mathematically defined as 1.16699016 × 10-8 hertz, since a blue moon occurs every 2.71542689 years

So something might happen once every 2-3 years

Answer 5

It comes from the fact that a blue moon is extremely rare, so when someone says "once in a blue moon" they are saying that the event is extremely unlikely to occur

Answer 6

A blue moon is when there are 2 full moons in 1 month (begining and end) . It doesn't happen to often..so there ya go..Once in a blue moon....

Answer 7

A double full moon rising happens just once in every 33 months so many think that this is the reason, however, a rare, seldom seen, real 'Blue Moon is due to air particles floating through moonlight. It is a very infrequent happening.

Answer 8

Blue moon, luna activity, it takes 28.25 days for the moon to do a full cycle from new moon to new moon. So that means that there are 2 full moons in one month which is called a blue moon.

Answer 9

Even though it's very rare sometimes the moon does appear blue. This is down to particles in the atmosphere caused by volcanic eruptions or forrest fires etc. This doesn't happen very often so that's where the saying comes from!

Answer 10

The moon can get colored by the color of the refracted light that we see. Sometimes this will account for the orange-ish "harvest moon". But very rarely, it will appear blue-ish in color.

It doesn't happen often, so that's why "Once in a blue moon" means "very rarely".