Definition: the phenomenon whereby the moon in total eclipse appears reddish in color as it is illuminated by sunlight filtered and refracted by the earth's atmosphere.
A "blood moon" happens when Earth's moon is in full eclipse. While it has no special astronomical significance, the view in the sky is striking as the usually white-ish moon becomes red or ruddy-brown. The moon orbits around Earth, while Earth orbits around the sun. The moon takes about 27 days to orbit Earth and goes through regular phases in a 29.5-day cycle. The difference in these two cycles has to do with the relative positions of the sun, Earth and moon, which change during the moon's orbit.
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