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A new moon is the phase when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, making it invisible from Earth because the Sun's light illuminates only its far side. This phase matters because it marks the beginning of the lunar cycle, which has been used historically to track time and seasons, and it's when solar eclipses can occur.
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A simulated image of the traditionally defined new Moon: the earliest visible waxing crescent (lower right), which signals the start of a new month in many lunar and lunisolar calendars. At new moon, mostly earthlight illuminates the near side of the Moon. As the Earth revolves around the Sun, approximate axial parallelism of the Moon's orbital plane (tilted five degrees to the Earth's orbital plane) results in the revolution of the lunar nodes relative to the Earth. This causes an eclipse season approximately every six months, in which a solar eclipse can occur at the new moon phase.