I used to have a hard time telling which phase of the moon we were currently in (other than full). Was it a waxing or a waning crescent? What if someone on the street asks you and you don’t know? Does anyone else worry about these things? Fortunately, I read something* years ago that cleared it up for me.
Moon points east: Grow, be increased
Moon points west: Rest, be blessed
So–keeping in mind a crescent moon is usually in the western part of the sky–the “points” on the crescent pointing back across the sky to the east mean a waxing moon that will “grow” to be full soon.
The opposite, with the “points’ going to the west, means it’s an old moon about to be dark and “rest”:
There. Now you are prepared in the event of pop quizzes about basic moon phases. And for good measure, here is the waxing crescent moon as seen last night:
*I think it was in an L.M. Montgomery book, but it sounds more like the Old Farmer’s Almanac. I really don’t remember where I picked it up, but Google doesn’t seem to think the saying is very widespread.