Folklore #066
Folklore & calendar
A "black moon" is a second new moon in one calendar month. The term is roughly as old as broadband.
It was coined by straight analogy with the blue moon, spread through websites and apps, and has no traditional basis whatsoever, which has not stopped it acquiring a full set of ritual associations inside about a decade. Watching folklore assemble itself in real time is genuinely fascinating. It just isn't old.
Tradition: Internet-era coinage, 2000s · checked Aug 2026
🔭 Meanwhile, in astronomy: The blue moon rule is a 1946 mistake