You may wish to cancel your direct debits and dust off your bucket list (or draft one up double time), as a rare lunar event known as the Black Moon may bring about the end of the world as we know it.
Putting aside any interpretations derived from apocalyptic fundamentalism, there are several events named “Black Moon”, one of them being when two new moons fall within the same calendar month.
The last time that such event took place was March 2014, and won’t happen again until July 2019.
This year’s Black Moon will rise up in the night sky on Friday, September 30. Earth’s perennial companion will not actually be visible, as sunlight will fall on the side of Moon that is facing away from our planet.
Some believe that the Black Moon heralds the end of days, and Matthew 24:29 appears to confirm such fears: “Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
Here in Ireland at least, the rise of the Black Moon coincides with the first week of the Dáil’s order of business after a long period of taxpayer-funded absenteeism. When one reads the signs, it certainly does not bode well for the country.