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| - Fact Check: Halloween & Blue Moon make for an eerie combo, but spook lovers will miss it this year
When two full moons occur In the same month of the Gregorian calendar, the second moon is known as the Blue Moon.
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India Today Fact Check
There will be no Blue Moon on Halloween this time. A full Blue Moon was spotted on Halloween last year, and before that in 1944. This is last year’s message that has been going viral again.
It’s time to bring out those skull costumes for Halloween is around the corner. But what if you’re told that a Blue Moon will add that extra dose of spookiness on the day, after a gap of 76 years? Getting the shivers already?
Well, that’s exactly what some social media users are sharing. “There’s going to be a full blue moon on 31 october 2021 that is Halloween for the first time in 76 years [sic],” reads a post, circulating on the Internet.
However, India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. There will be no Blue Moon on October 31. A full Blue Moon was spotted on Halloween last year, and before that in 1944. This is last year’s message that is going viral again.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here, and here.
WHAT IS A BLUE MOON?
When two full moons occur In the same month of the Gregorian calendar, the second moon is known as the Blue Moon.
There are two types of Blue Moons. First is the normal Blue Moon. The second is the seasonal Blue Moon. When four full moons occur in an astronomical season (that is in three months), the third full moon is known as the seasonal Blue Moon.
BLUE MOON IN 2021
Going by the phenomenon of Blue Moon and the list of full moon dates in 2021, there wasn’t supposed to be a Blue Moon this year.
However, under a special circumstance, a seasonal Blue Moon was spotted on August 22, 2021.
The list of full moon dates in 2021 states that no full moon would occur on October 31, 2021. Hence, the question of a Blue Moon on Halloween does not arise.
THE LAST FULL BLUE MOON?
October 2020 saw two full moons one on October 1 and the second on
October 31. So the full moon on October 31, 2020, was actually a Blue Moon.
The viral post says a Blue Moon will be seen on Halloween after 76 years. A look at the full moon dates of 1944 confirms that a Blue Moon was indeed spotted on October 31 of that year.
EXPERT VIEW
To further confirm the claim, we got in touch with Dr Debiprasad Duari, Fellow at the Royal Astronomical Society and International Astronomical Union, and the director of MP Birla Planetarium in Kolkata.
“This year, there is no full moon on October 31. So, there is no chance of having a Blue Moon. This claim was applicable for 2020, when there was a Blue Moon on October 31. If you refer to the Blue Moon calendar, you will see that before 2020, the Blue Moon on October 31 occurred in 1944,” Duari told AFWA.
Hence, we can conclude that the claim is false. Much to the disappointment of Halloween lovers, there won’t be any Blue Moon on Halloween this year.
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