August 06, 2013 is my birthday. It's also the time of the New Moon, also known as the Dark Moon.
The moon won't be visible to my naked eye, because this is the moment when the moon reaches its MINIMUM brightness, situated between Earth and the Sun, in conjunction with the Sun as seen from Earth, with the dark (unilluminated) portion of the moon facing almost directly toward Earth.
Visible or not, I do know the moon will be there---thanks to a childhood birthday story told to me many years ago by an elderly neighbor.
She described the moon as a giant eye in the night sky, and every month it would choose one child's birthday, and it would close its eye and darken it in one long "wink," to acknowledge and honor that child's special day. On that night, she said, I was the birthday child who was chosen for that honor. And I believed her.
I later learned the astronomical explanation for the Dark Moon, but I never did let go of that old woman's magical story---fabricated just for me, the birthday girl.
All these years later, I remember this kind woman, and I still love her story. And it hasn't passed my notice that my birthday again falls on the Night of the Dark Moon.
Happy birthday to me!
And thank you Mr. Moon.
