Essential Eccentricity

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

• Vesak Festival and Blue Moons

  
  

  The Full Moon in May, today, is the Vesak (or Wesak) Festival.  In the Buddhist world, it is a centuries-old tradition.  Today, Buddhists all over the world commemorate three great events: The Birth, Enlightenment and the Passing Away of Gautama Buddha.
  
  The first Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (W.F.B.) held in Sri Lanka in 1950, adopted the following resolution:

  That this Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, while recording its appreciation of the gracious act of His Majesty, the Maharaja of Nepal in making the full-moon day of Vesak a Public Holiday in Nepal, earnestly requests the Heads of Governments of all countries in which large or small number of Buddhists are to be found, to take steps to make the full-moon day in the month of May a Public Holiday in honour of the Buddha, who is universally acclaimed as one of the greatest benefactors of Humanity.

  Of course, in the U.S., with its constitutionally mandated separation of church (other than Xian) and state, it is not officially recognized.  Since virtually nobody will get today off from work for the celebration, most festivities in the U.S. were held this past weekend.   There was a big festival at Mount Shasta in California.  If you attended one elsewhere, let me know.
  
  In Malaysia, at the Maha Vihara Temple in Jalan Berhala, the Festival has been "toned down," and some of the resources that might have been expended on the celebration were diverted to aid cyclone victims in Myanmar and earthquake victims in China.  Donation boxes were set up in the temple...and Buddha smiles.  But, come to think of it, I have never seen a frowning Buddha, and I wouldn't want to.
  
  Yesterday, I asked a yes/no question, and got three different answers from various people.  I wanted to know if the second full moon in an astrological sign was equally qualified to be called a "blue moon," as the second full moon in a calendrical month is.  Predictably, there are those who express the opinion that only the second full moon in a calendar month qualifies, and those who believe that both months and signs are qualified.  There are also the historical purists and sticklers for fact, who want the whole story made known.
  
  Scriveling left this comment:
  

  I find this interesting: the idea that a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month only goes back to 1946.  Before that the phrase referred to the third full moon in a season that had four...but I'm not sure how they figured the beginning and end of seasons.  There is another full moon between now and the summer solstice, so maybe this is the blue moon.
  

  Source: http://www.obliquity.com/astro/blue-st.html

  The currently popular definition of "blue moon" as the rare occurrence of a second full moon in a single month was the accidental invention of Sky and Telescope magazine:  "Sky and Telescope had in fact created the current meaning by mistake in an article published in March 1946. The author of the 1946 article had misinterpreted a page of the 1937 Maine Farmers' Almanac."
  
  I was pointed by satori to an article by astrologer Richard Giles, who shares my opinion that an astrological sign, being a 30-degree, one-twelfth segment of a yearly circle of the Sun, is equally (or perhaps even more) qualified for recognition on the relatively rare occurrence of two full moons during the course of one.  Calendar months, being basically political in nature and not even uniform divisions (the rarity of a February blue moon... wow!), have nothing to recommend them to me over the signs.
  
  

  

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