Our Blue Moon

Since I am extraordinarily fond of the color blue in all it's splendorous shades, I enjoyed reading New Year's: Once In A Blue Moon by Donna Henes on Huffingtonpost.com. You can read the whole article there. Here is a piece I enjoyed with colorful suggestions on celebrating our Blue Moon:

The last day of 2009 is a doozy -- triply auspicious. Not only is it the eve of a new year, a new decade no less, there will be a full moon, a lunar eclipse and a blue moon to boot.
. .  . . .

This New Year's Eve, I propose a lunar rite of passage into the power of positive change for the next decade: A True Blue Ceremony in the Spirit of Universal Beneficence.

It seems suitable to me to strike a blue mood. The lights are shaded blue, of course. Blue pine incense is lit. We are bathed in an airy wash of cool blue. Dressed in our best blues, we sip some sort of berry infusion. Drink in its navy depths. We put bluebells in our hair. We have become like the Tuaregs, the "blue people" of the Moroccan Sahara whose skin becomes imbued with the indigo dyes of their robes. A becalmed blue aura surrounds us. We are emerged in an ocean of blue: the blue of the sea, the blue of the sky, a morning glorious blue.

We symbolically cleanse and bless the streams, the rivers, the ponds and lakes, the big blue sky, the very air we breathe -- the entire biosphere. We use bluing as our purifying agent. It's what our mothers and grandmothers bought in bottles or little wrapped cubes, to add to their wash. The same as those little blue flecks in modern powdered laundry detergents.

We dip the blue balls into water and paint emblems on each other's foreheads with the cobalt paste. We anoint each other with blue blessings. We pledge our affinity as co-creators of the working blueprint plan for a new paradigm. We pray for possibility, for a new perspective. We light bright blue candles for illumination and spiritual guidance.

We chant for peace. We chant. We drum. We dance. We spin for peace, for passion, for promise. For the power of our path and purpose. We slow to a stop. Stilled. Sated. Steady. Strong. The blue air is charged. We are changed, united in azure energy.

Ready to begin a new year a new way.

May you enjoy all the richness of blues surrounding you

Some New Years' History

Here's a piece of an interesting article found on canada.com titled "New Year's traditions hail from the depths of antiquity" by Randy Shore:

If your head really hurts on New Year's Day, you could point your finger at the Babylonians who started this new year revelry nonsense. Though the ancient Romans added the idea of alcoholic excess, or at least perfected it.

Julius Caesar fixed the start of the year on Jan. 1 by letting the previous year run to 445 days rather than the traditional 365. The Roman citizenry made their winter festival Saturnalia a celebration without rules. So, let's blame the Romans.

Any way you slice it, New Year's is among the very oldest and most persistent of human celebrations.

The western world celebrates the new year on Jan. 1 in the early weeks of winter, which is about as sensible as a wooden fireplace. For some thousands of years before Julie and the Roman Senate got involved, the new year was celebrated with the first edible crops of the season or the first new moon.

In much of India, Nava Varsha is celebrated in March or April, just as in the most ancient civilizations.

Sikhs celebrate Hola Mohalla in March; ditto for Persian Nowruz.

As celebrated in China and Southeast Asia, Lunar New Year still has a floating date, the first day of the first lunar month.

That brand of rhythm with the earth and moon stuff is just a little too hocus-pocus for the stiffs that run the western world. We like fixed dates, Gaia be damned.

For the rest of the article, here's the link: http://www.canada.com/life/Year+traditions+hail+from+depths+antiquity/1126441/story.html