Welcome to Day 29 of my July Trivia posts.*
Trivia: February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
THIS IS A LIE. However, it led me to the coolest term I’ve never heard of, so I might forgive whatever idiot made this up.
Every nineteen years, February has no full moon. This is called a Black Moon. I’m not sure how you can name something that doesn’t exist, but Black Moon is an awesome term.
Black Moon has several meanings. Here is a list so you can use Black Moon in your daily discussion of the Moon.
Black Moon definitions:
- Second New Moon in the same month (thus the opposite of a Blue Moon.) This is the most common type of Black Moon.
- Third New Moon in a season with four New Moons. This is a little confusing and rarer. Most seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) have three New Moons. When there is a four one (which happens every 33 months), the third one (not the fourth one) is a Black Moon. This is the opposite of the other Blue Moon definition that is the third Full Moon in a four Full Moon season.
- No New Moon in February. This happens once every 19 years. February is the only month that can have this type of Black Moon because it is shorter than a lunar month.
- No Full Moon in February: It doesn’t matter if there is no New Moon or no Full Moon in February. They are both called Black Moons.
I love learning new words. I didn’t know that Blue Moon had a second definition about seasonal moons, and Black Moons were totally new to me. Cool.
I give this trivia a 3 out of 10. It was neat to learn a new term, but I can’t forgive how blatantly wrong this trivia is.
*I’m doing something hard (for me) in July that I don’t want to talk about until August (in case I fail.) This something takes a lot of time, so I’m simplifying my July posts. I’m using a list of trivia that Aunt Patti emailed me. Each day, I will explore a trivia fact and bring you the truth, not just the clickbait. I might even rate the trivia. I think this will be fun because I love exploring new topics and sharing them with you. I hope you learn something too. If you do, why not share it with a friend. One of my goals is to get more readers, and word of mouth is a great way to do that. Many thanks.