The importance of Amavasya is that it is a day of new beginnings. It is a time to discard the old (habits, thought processes, failures and negative influences) and embrace the promise of new light that the new moon brings to us. The dark side of the moon is revealed on this day as the moon completes its waning cycle of fourteen days. The first day of the waning cycle is actually the full moon day, also called purnima.