Origin Stories: The Man in the Moon

The Moon, picture by Susana Cipriano via pixabay

As the sun crests below the horizon and the stars peek out from the black curtain of the sky, depending on the time of the month, the bright moon shines down upon us, the face trapped inside, watching us.

Wait. 

What?

For centuries, people have claimed to see a face in the moon. The story of the man in the moon has been documented since the 1500s with different variations across the Northern Hemisphere, including the famous old English nursery rhyme. The Southern Hemisphere, however, has been noticeably silent from the recording of this mysterious figure in the sky. Perhaps this all has to do with perspective.

Despite the world seeing the same moon, the angle at which we view it varies between the hemispheres. Long before man was on the moon or even on Earth, asteroids collided with the moon’s surface, triggering volcanic eruptions that eventually cooled and shaped the lunar landscape into what we see today. The dark patches we might see when looking at the moon are the result of the hot magma having cooled into what is called “lunar maria” or “lunar seas.” It is in these dark patches that we start to see the watchful eyes and open mouth of the man who resides there.

But who is this man? And what’s he doing up there?

Well, just as there is no singular angle to view the moon, there is no singular explanation. In Talmudic tradition, the image of Jacob, later known as Israel, is the face of the man in the moon, though no written text supports this. 

Germanic folklore spins a story similar to the one we see in Numbers 15: 32-36 of the Hebrew Bible. In this section, a man is discovered picking up sticks on Sabbath and is punished for his crime. Though there is no mention of the moon, the Germanic telling shares the tale of a man who was seen picking up sticks on a Sunday and was banished to the moon as punishment and warning for others who might wish to work on a religious day.

Indigenous storytelling in North America offers more evidence for a person being trapped in the moon. One such example includes the boy in the moon from Gwich’in oral tradition. In this story, a young boy helped his people’s hunting party find caribou under the promise that the biggest caribou would be given to the boy to be passed on to the poorest of the community. The “Mean Uncle” in the story refused to give up his caribou, the biggest one, and instead trapped the young boy in the moon. The shape of the moon’s shadows and the angle of the boy’s visage would later be used to suggest plentiful or difficult winters.

Across the ocean, The Mid-Autumn Festival is an annual celebration of harvest and the moon, which is believed to be at its brightest and fullest during the event. The festival has different names and slightly different celebrations across China, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, and other countries. Mooncakes are a staple in the celebration, connecting the bounty of harvest with the Moon Goddess Chang’e. 

In one tale, ten suns rose on the same day and Chang’e’s husband Hou Yi was entrusted to shoot down nine of them. After succeeding, he was rewarded with an elixir of immortality, which he wished to share with his wife. One of Yi’s apprentices broke into their home to steal the elixir when Yi was not home, and to prevent the ill-intentioned man from succeeding, Chang’e quickly drank the elixir herself. Now she lives on the moon, and for every year since, Hou Yi made a banquet of all of her favorite pastries and fruits.

Vietnamese legend also shares the story of a wood cutter named Cuoi, who clung to a magic tree that his wife made the mistake of peeing on as it rocketed into the sky. He landed on the moon, where he was left to live out his days.

The Jade Rabbit who lives on the moon originates from an Indian tale in which a rabbit offers to throw itself upon a fire to feed its hungry friends. Unbeknownst to the kind rabbit, one of those friends included the Buddha in disguise. The Buddha stopped the rabbit and commended its generosity but warned the rabbit not to harm itself. Instead, Buddha carried the rabbit to the moon where it could be safe and its generous spirit could serve as a reminder for all those looking up at the night sky.
I fell down a rabbit hole (pun-intended) while researching the origins of the man in the moon. There are so many stories that I couldn’t possibly include them all, but even more interesting to me was how these stories impacted the cultures of the people who told them. It’s narrative archaeology at its finest. From predicting bountiful harvests to huge, annual festivals, the moon and the stories we attach to it are instrumental in our lives.