Reflections on the moon

The moon is front and center once again this month.

That’s because July 2015 is one of those unusual months when there’s a “blue moon.” That’s the popular name for the second full moon in a month, something that happens only rarely.

Because the moon waxes and wanes on a 29½-day cycle, it’s uncommon to have two “waxings” in the same month. This month they happen to fall on July 2 and July 31.

The rarity of the phenomenon gives rise to the term “once in a blue moon.” The next blue moon will take place Jan. 31, 2018.

It’s hard to imagine human culture without the moon’s place in it.

The ancient Greeks worshipped Selene, the goddess of the moon; she drove her moon chariot across the sky at night. Her Roman equivalent was Luna.

In literature worldwide, the moon appears frequently. In Longfellow’s interminable poem, “Hiawatha,” the hero’s grandmother is Nokomis, introduced in the first few lines. Her name is translated in the poem as “Daughter of the Moon.”

How many musical compositions include the moon as a referent? Titles range from popular sing-alongs like “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” and “Moonlight Bay” through mid-century numbers like “Moon River,” “Moon Over Miami,” “Paper Moon” and “Abba Dabba Honeymoon” (remember that one?) and on to classical music like Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.” You can probably think of many more.

Then there’s movie lore. Besides all the romantic films with lovers mooning into each other’s eyes under a full moon, there are the horror films where the moon transforms normal folks into werewolves, or where vampires sleep during the day but shed their coffins at moonrise.

And “the man in the moon,” an illusion formed by the moon’s craters and mountains, has been smiling down on us for eons.

In Appalachia in the 18th and 19th centuries, and on into the 20th, of course, it was “moonshine” that supported many a mountain family. Illegal stills paid the bills in those hardscrabble times.

The term came from the fact that moonshiners plied their trade at night when detection was more difficult.

Moonshine was different from standard whiskey because it was marketed and consumed fresh rather than aged.

During Prohibition in the U.S. (1919-33), some moonshine proved poisonous to unwary buyers. Old radiators sometimes served as condensers for the makeshift stills, and they contained lead or other contaminants that turned their product deadly at times.

The moon is intimately connected to religion as well.

In Christianity, the date of Easter varies from year to year, unlike most other holidays (holy days). That’s because in 352 A.D. at the Council of Nicaea, the assembled Christian leaders declared that Easter, the holiday to commemorate Christ’s resurrection, would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the March 21 spring equinox.

That means that the Easter date can vary by several weeks from year to year. If the first full moon after the equinox falls on a Sunday, Easter is delayed by a week.

But the moon is also important to the gods of war as well as to the Prince of Peace. Battle strategies and tactics often depend on the moon, including its effect on the tide.

D-Day on June 6, 1944, took place on that date to coincide with the appropriate tidal conditions just before dawn and the accompanying full moon, which allowed optimum accuracy for airborne assault.

Unfortunately, clouds obscured the landing zones in interior Normandy for many Allied aircraft, resulting in numerous paratroopers landing miles from their targets, and hundreds of consequent troop deaths.

In an older example, a major battle between the Lydians and the Medians on May 28, 585 B.C., was called off by mutual agreement when a rare solar eclipse, caused when the moon came between the Earth and the sun, was taken as a sign of celestial displeasure.

Being mooned, of course, is the full-body equivalent of an obscene hand or arm gesture.

Earth has only one moon. What might human culture be like if Earth had two, like Mars? Or five, like Pluto? Or 13 like Neptune, or 27 like Uranus, or 62 like Saturn, or 63 like Jupiter?

Would “moonness” be less contemplated, or worshipped, or commemorated in song, literature and language, if there were several dozen heavenly bodies revolving around our skies?

Why just one?

Since about 1975, scientists have generally agreed that our moon was formed sometime after Earth’s genesis about 4½ billion years ago. Its birth took place when one of the nearby bodies gradually growing from solar system accretions struck the Earth, throwing earthen material into space. That material gathered together into a single body that remained trapped in Earth’s orbit — the moon.

For us, to quote a line from the movie “Highlander,” “There can be only one.”