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「Nwe Info.」に今年最後のブログをアップした後に、 面白いネタが入ったので、 「Life」のコーナーでご紹介したいと思います。 .....って、記事を前回アップしたのは2007年4月6日でした（汗） 米国の取引先の友人から、今朝メールが届きました。 クリスマスに送ったカードとプレゼントのお礼の言葉が綴られていました。 そして、最後に書かれていた文章が次です。 Our best wishes for a happy new year to you also. Will you be experiencing the blue moon on new years eve in Japan? １行目は分かります。 でも、２行目の意味が分かりませんでした？ そこで、ネットで検索してみると、 MocoさんのブログButterfly's Diaryで答えを見つけましたぁ〜(^_^) ひと月のうちに満月が2回ある時に、 2回目の満月を「ブルームーン」と呼ぶそーなんですが、知りませんでした！？ それがニューイヤーズ・イヴ(大晦日の晩)に起こるのは２０年ぶりとのこと＼(◎o◎)／！ ひと月に２度満月になること自体レアなのに、 それが１２月３１日に当たることはメッチャ・レアなんだとか..... なんか、凄いですねぇ〜。 さらに、（米国の）Yahoo!で検索してみたら、 記事のネタ元が2009年12月30日付のCNNニュース "Blue moon to shine on New Year's Eve"だと判明しましたぁ。 以下、全文を転載しましたので、 興味のある方はご覧くださいね。 前回の Blue Moon on New Years Eve は1990年12月31日でした。 その時のニューイヤーズ・イヴ・パーティは、 Blue Moon on New Years Eveをテーマに祝ったそうです。 今年の大晦日が、 珍しいBlue Moon on New Years Eveだということを報じている日本のマスコミは、 いった何社あったのでしょうか？ Googleで「ニュース」検索（「Blue moon to shine on New Year's Eve」で検索）してみたら、 日本のマスコミの記事はゼロ（汗）、 全て海外の記事でした。 「大晦日、満月」「大晦日、ブルームーン」で検索してみましたが、 日本のマスコミの記事はゼロでした....（汗） ハロウィーンやクリスマス、バレンタインデーの時には、 異常なほど大騒ぎする日本のマスコミですが、 Blue Moon on New Years Eveには関心が薄いか、関心が全く無いのか、 日本のマスコミには、 たぶんロマンチストが少ないのでしょう..... (CNN) -- It happens only once in a blue moon -- and scientists say a blue moon is exactly what we'll see in the skies this New Year's Eve. Don't expect an azure glow over our lunar satellite, however. The term "blue moon" simply refers to the second full moon in a calendar month, something that hasn't happened on a New Year's Eve for nearly 20 years, NASA says. "December 1990 ended with a blue moon, and many New Year's Eve parties were themed by the event," said Professor Philip Hiscock of the department of folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, in Canada. "It was a lot of fun." Most months have just one full moon, because the 29.5-day cycle of the moon matches up pretty well with the length of calendar months. Occasionally, there will be two full moons in a month, something that happens about every 2½ years, NASA says. But a blue moon on December 31 is rare. Elvis Presley crooned about it when he sang the old Rodgers and Hart song "Blue Moon," in which he stood alone without a dream in his heart or a love of his own. He struck a more hopeful tone in another tune, singing about his love returning to his arms "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again." He also covered Bill Monroe's bluegrass classic, "Blue Moon of Kentucky." It is possible for the moon to have a cerulean hue, NASA says, but that's sometimes caused by fine dirt circulating in the Earth's atmosphere or the dark blue tone of the sky. A blue moon hasn't always meant the second full moon in a month. Hundreds of years ago, it simply meant "never" or "absurd," Hiscock said. "The phrase 'blue moon' has been around a long time, well over 400 years, but during that time its meaning has shifted," he said. "I have counted six different meanings which have been carried by the term, and at least four of them are still current today. That makes discussion of the term a little complicated." When the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa erupted in 1883, it put so much dust in the atmosphere that the moon actually appeared blue -- an event so unusual that the term "once in a blue moon" was coined, according to NASA's National Space Science Data Center. The effect lasted for almost two years, Hiscock said. Full moons used to have 12 names, one for each month, such as "harvest moon," NASA said. The term "blue moon" referred to the 13th full moon in a year. The term acquired its current meaning in the 1940s, after the Farmer's Almanac of Maine offered an astronomical definition of a blue moon "so convoluted that even professional astronomers struggled to understand it," NASA wrote on its Web site. A writer at Sky and Telescope magazine in the late 1940s tried to explain the almanac's definition by saying it referred to the second full moon in a month. "That was not correct, but at least it could be understood," NASA wrote. "And thus the modern blue moon was born." (end) 今現在の盛岡は雪が降っていますが、 日本の各地でも大晦日の晩にBlue Moonが見られるとイイですね♪ どーか良い新年をお迎えください。 ヘ ヘ
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