People Go Missing and Other Blood Moon Bad Raps

“People go missing during a blood moon.”

That line is included twice, once at the beginning and again at the end, of the trailer for the horror movie The Stairs. (Included below.) I couldn’t help but wonder a few things upon hearing it, including

1. “Do people really go missing during a blood moon?
2. “Or maybe more than they go missing during other full moons?”
3. “Do people even go missing during full moons? Is that a thing?”

As I continued watching the trailer I would also wonder, “Are there really stairs to nowhere like that in the woods somewhere?”

But that’s a post for another time. First I had to figure out if there was some legend about people going missing during blood moons.

What is a blood moon?

But even before I could delve into the mystery of missing people and full moons, I had to figure out what exactly a blood moon was. Did it correlate with a specific month?

Yes and no.

A quick check of the Full Moon Names and Dates page revealed that in addition to the Hunter’s Moon (popular), Harvest Moon (Celtic), and Kindly Moon (Chinese), in some circles (Neo Pagan), October’s moon is called the Blood Moon.

But in general, total lunar eclipses are referred to as blood moons. As Space.com explained, “…the Earth casts a giant shadow across the lunar surface, giving the moon a striking reddish hue.”

Well, that answered one question.

Blood Moons Get a Bad Rap

In his illuminating post in The Conversation, astronomer Daniel Brown explains the mythology of “lunar malevolence” surrounding lunar eclipses. “…if anything interrupts the regular rhythms of the sun or moon it impacts strongly upon us and our lives.”

It’s no wonder then that such events are often construed as bad omens.

In fact, as Brown goes on to explain, it’s why Easter always falls on the Sunday after the spring’s first full moon. This way an eclipse can never happen on Easter Sunday. Which is good since “Christianity has equated lunar eclipses with the wrath of God” and they’re “a potential mark of Judgement Day.”

But Brown also explained that many cultures and religions worldwide viewed lunar eclipses as having “evil intent.” For instance, the Incas feared it was a great jaguar eating the moon. One that might then turn its eyes towards Earth to satiate its hunger next.

Mesopotamians believed it put their king in peril so they’d put in an expendable proxy to temporarily reign until the full moon ended. In India, it’s not uncommon for people to take extra precautions against suffering ill fortunes, which a lunar eclipse is believed to bring.

But do more people go missing during blood moons? Or during full moons at all? Or is that a myth?

The Case of the Missing Full Moon

Many people will tell you when a moon is full, people get nuttier. But in a Live Science post, Benjamin Radford examined whether or not strange things really happen during full moons. 

Not necessarily.

At least, nothing weird like people turning into werewolves. If the weather is good, more people might have a tendency to venture out into the night, though, including crooks and criminals. Naturally. They need people to prey on, so they’ll go where there’s good “hunting,” so to speak. After all, even with a full, bright moon, there’s still an aspect of darkness providing them cover to make committing their crimes easier.

I couldn’t find any evidence that more people go missing during full moons, blood or otherwise. However, I did find an interesting story about the famous “black eclipse” and the night the blood moon disappeared.

According to whenisthenexteclipse.com, in addition to the total lunar eclipse on May 5, 1110, there was also a major volcanic explosion right around that time. The resulting “dust veil” obscured the sky, making the night even darker.

Yeah, I imagine that freaked out a few sky-watchers and led to some Judgement Day has come/End of the World anxiety.

The Stairs Trailer

Check-In

Weather permitting, do you venture out in the night to check out lunar eclipses when they happen?