Early English and Christian Usage
The earliest recorded English usage of the term blue moon was in a 1524 pamphlet violently attacking the English clergy, entitled "Rede Me and Be Not Wrothe" ("Read me and be not angry"): "If they say the moon is belewe / We must believe that it is true."
Another interpretation uses a different definition of the Middle English word belewe, which, in addition to "blue", can mean "betray". By the 16th century, before the Gregorian calendar reform, the medieval computus was out of sync with the actual seasons and the moon, and occasionally spring would have begun and a full moon passed a month before the computus put the first spring moon . Thus, the clergy needed to tell the people whether the full moon was the Easter moon or a false one, which they may have called a "betrayer moon" (belewe moon) after which people would have had to continue fasting for another month in accordance with the season of Lent.
Modern interpretation of the term relates to absurdities and impossibilities; the phrase "once in a blue moon" refers to an event that will take place only at incredibly rare occasions .
Read more about this topic: Blue Moon
Famous quotes containing the words early, english, christian and/or usage:
“The Americans never use the word peasant, because they have no idea of the class which that term denotes; the ignorance of more remote ages, the simplicity of rural life, and the rusticity of the villager have not been preserved among them; and they are alike unacquainted with the virtues, the vices, the coarse habits, and the simple graces of an early stage of civilization.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“The “Communism” of the English intellectual is something explicable enough. It is the patriotism of the deracinated.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“One memorable addition to the old mythology is due to this era,—the Christian fable. With what pains, and tears, and blood these centuries have woven this and added it to the mythology of mankind! The new Prometheus. With what miraculous consent, and patience, and persistency has this mythus been stamped on the memory of the race! It would seem as if it were in the progress of our mythology to dethrone Jehovah, and crown Christ in his stead.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, “It depends.” And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)