Under a Rare Blue Moon, New Year’s Eve Lasts a Little Longer

Americans bade farewell to 1990 Monday under a blue moon with a second to spare, while revelers in major cities were warned not to fire their guns. A church that survived the 1871 Chicago Fire hoped to still be around next year.

New Year’s Eve was a fraction longer as a “leap second” was added to 1990 to help adjust for the slowing of Earth’s rotation and to keep the official time in sync with the sun and the stars.

Miami astronomer Jack Horkheimer urged stargazers to welcome in the New Year by howling at the blue moon. “Animals do bay at the moon. And we’re animals too,” Horkheimer said.

The New Year’s Eve moon was not really colored blue, but the second full moon in a single month is always called that, for reasons that are obscure. The last blue moon was in May, 1988.

Police in Miami, Detroit and Dallas--as well as Los Angeles--were on guard against another old custom: shooting guns into the air. Police warn that bullets fall back to Earth with enough force “to penetrate cars and roofs of buildings--enough force to seriously injure or possibly kill a person.” Violators are arrested.

In the Windy City, the New Year brought a deadline for the historic Holy Family Church, one of only five public buildings to survive the Chicago Fire, to avert the wrecking ball.

Supporters scrambled on New Year’s Eve to raise the last of $1 million needed to start restoration work. Failure would mean demolition of the 130-year-old Victorian Gothic structure, boasting the city’s oldest stained glass.

Organizers of the Holy Family Restoration Society on Monday said the race with destruction was so close that they would not know for sure until today whether they attained their goal.