People of all ages have looked upon the moon as a provider of good and
bad luck, and most of us have probably noticed that it has influenced
our actions, at times. Here are some of the beliefs that are centuries
old.
If you see a new moon over your right shoulder, it means that you will
experience good luck all the month.
If you have money in your pocket and you meet the new moon face to
face, turn the money over and you will not run short of money that
month.
It is unlucky to see the new moon through glass. If you do, go out of
doors, curtsey three times to the moon and turn some silver in your
hand. This will break the spell which will be cast over you if you do
not do as directed. There is one little point, connected with this
superstition, which has set us thinking. What of all those individuals
who wear glasses? We do not know the answer.
There is a strongly prevalent idea that everything falling to the lot
of man when the moon is waxing will increase or prosper; but things
decrease and do not prosper when the moon is on the wane.
Irish colleens were wont to drop on their knees when they first caught
sight of the new moon, and say, "Oh, moon, leave us as well as you have
found us." And, long ago, Yorkshire maidens "did worship the new moon
on their bent knees, kneeling upon the earth-cast stone."
If the full moon known as the Harvest Moon appears watery, it is an
ill sign for the harvest. (The Harvest Moon is due about the middle of
September.)
If the moon shows a silver shield, be not afraid to reap your field:
but if she rises haloed round, soon we'll tread on deluged ground.
If the moon changes on a Sunday there will be a flood before the month
is out.
A Saturday moon, if it comes once in seven years, comes too soon.
A fog and a small moon bring an easterly wind soon.
In the waning of the moon,
Cloudy morning: fair afternoon.
Pale moon doth rain; red moon doth blow,
White moon doth neither rain nor snow.
When the moon's halo is far, the storm is n'ar (near).
When the moon's halo is n'ar, the storm is far.
It has long been a custom for girls to go to the nearest stile, to turn
their back on the first new moon after Midsummer and to chant these
verses:
All hail, new moon, all hail to thee.
I prithee, good moon, reveal to me,
This night, who shall my true love be.
Who he is and what he wears,
And what he does all months and years.
If she were to be married in the course of the next twelve months, the
moon answered her questions during her sleep of the same evening.
In many parts of the country it is supposed that, on Christmas Eve,
the moon will help maidens to find out when they are to be married.
The plan is for a maiden to borrow a silk handkerchief from a male
relation and to take it and a mirror to some sheet of water, while the
night is dark. She must go quite alone; but the sheet of water may be
an unromantic pail, full to the brim, stationed at the bottom of the
garden. As soon as the moon shows itself, the maiden places the flimsy
piece of silk in front of her eyes, and, by holding the mirror half
towards the moon and half towards the water, it is possible for her to
see more than a pair of reflections. The number of reflections are the
months which will ensue before her wedding bells ring out.
We recently came across the following information in a document quite
three hundred years old:
"The first, second and third days of the moon's age are lucky for
buying and selling; the seventh, ninth and eleventh are lucky for
engagements and marriage; the sixteenth and twenty-first are not lucky
for anything."
The same document affirmed that:
"A baby born before the new moon is twenty-four hours old is sure to be
lucky. Anything lost during the second twenty-four hours of the moon's
age is sure to be found. All things begun on the fifth twenty-four
hours will turn out successfully. A dream experienced on the eighth
twenty-four hours must come true."