Like A Grammar Tip, But For The Moon

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. 2-day-old+Moon+Jun+22

The opposite, with the “points’ going to the west, means it’s an old moon about to be dark and “rest”:  waning_crescent_featured
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:

IMG_0701

 

*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.