Carpe Diem #786 buruu muun (blue moon)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First this: I am hopelessly behind with commenting and I don't think I can catch up, so if I didn't visit or comment your response than please forgive me. I will try to do it better next month.

Second: As you all know our third CDHK kukai is running and you can submit your haiku for this kukai "juxtaposition" until August 16th. You can email your submission (a maximum of three never published earlier haiku) to our email address:

carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com

Please write kukai "juxtaposition" in the subject line.

Third: Yesterday I introduced an all new feature CDHK's Renga Party. If you would like to participate in this Renga Party please let me know through the comments field of that post. You can register until August 5th.

This is our last episode of July in which we explored classical Japanese kigo (seasonwords) for summer and got to know a talented haiku poet from Ghana, Adjei Agyei Baah.
Today our prompt isn't a classical kigo, but let me say ... a special treat, because today we have the second full moon of July, so we have a so called "blue moon". It's a special occasion, because we have had not a single blue moon during the existence of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. The last blue moon before starting CDHK was on August 31st 2012 and I remember that I wrote a post about this blue moon on my personal weblog Chèvrefeuille's Haiku blog.

Blue Moon is a phenomenon that occurs not so many times. It’s a second full moon in one month.
I am close to the Wiccan tradition and live with the lunar calendar. It is amazing to see that sometimes we have twice a full moon in one month. In the Wiccan tradition we call that Blue Moon this will occur today (July 31^st). Blue Moon is for Wiccans worth a celebration and it will be a great celebration.

Moon above Seta

Basho wrote a haiku on this event of the Blue Moon. It occurred in the Autumn of 1692 as we may belief, but I did some research on this and came to the conclusion that in Basho's lifetime a Blue Moon had occurred twenty times. According to the year in which the following haiku was written, the Blue Moon, wasn't in Autumn but on April 30th (or in March, as we follow the lunar calendar).

In 1689 a Blue Moon occurred on August 30th and as we know, according to the lunar calendar, this has to be July and that's in the midst of summer. I think Basho was impressed of the Blue Moon and wrote this haiku later. Until now, in my lifetime (1963 - now) a Blue Moon occurred 21 times.

Matsuo Basho has written a wonderful haiku on this event of the Blue Moon.

meigetsu wa futatsu sugite mo Seta no tsuki

Harvest moon
even coming twice in a month

the moon of Seta 

© Matsuo Basho

It's really awesome to experience the beauty of a second full moon in one month ... it's magical I think. 

wonderful event
another full moon in one month
awesome

awesome
to witness this Blue Moon
wonderful event

© Chèvrefeuille

Blue Moon

it's a mystery
today a second full moon occurred
awesome ... Blue Moon

© Chèvrefeuille

Back in 2012 (September) I wrote a "haibun" about the occurrence of a Blue Moon. I love to share that here again.

A Blue Moon occurred on August 31th 2012, a second full moon in one month. It’s magical and mysterious to see that Blue Moon. A Blue Moon occurs not many times. As I look at my lifetime (over 50 yrs) there were 20 Blue Moons and the next Blue Moon will occur on July 31 2015. So I had to see this event of course. Well I did saw it.

I was wandering through my neighborhood when I saw just a circle of light at the night sky, but several minutes later the clouds moved away from the full moon and then I could see the Blue Moon. It was a mysterious and magical moment which I will cherish like a treasure. Ah! What a richness! I have seen the Blue Moon.

she is hiding
in a circle of light
the Blue Moon

© Chèvrefeuille

Well .... I hope you all did like the read and I hope it will inspire you to write an all new haiku or tanka.

This was it ... July 2015 has gone by in one heartbeat .... we are preparing us for an all new month of Carpe Diem in which we will follow in the footsteps of the pharaohs and explorers to find the source of The Nile ... it will be an adventure I think and I hope you all will be part of this adventure.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until August 2nd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our first episode of August, the first CD Special by Lolly of Lovely Things, our winner of the "summertime" kukai and our featured haiku poetess this month, later on.