Moon rabbit

The rabbit in the moon is in the folklore of a rabbit on the moon, the shape on the basis of pareidolia in the characteristic appearance of the moon's surface is visible. This figure is available in various cultures, particularly prevalent in East Asian folklore, where it occurs in conjunction with a mortar or ramming tub.

East Asia

In Chinese folklore, the moon rabbit (月 兔Chinese, Pinyin yuètù ) or Jadehase (Chinese玉兔, Pinyin Yutu ) often appears as a companion of the moon goddess Chang'e, for which he stomps the elixir of life with his device. After the Japanese ( tsuki no usagi there as ) and Korean ( there as 달토끼, revised: dal Tokki ) tradition he touches only the ingredients for rice cakes ( mochi). The mortar symbolizes the new moon, which gives birth to the crescent moon.

History

The earliest mention of a rabbit on the moon to be found in the Chuci, an anthology of Chinese poems from the period of the Warring States Period of Han, according to a hare are incessantly employed together with a toad (both ancient fertility symbols) on the moon with it, the pound immortality to stomp conferring herbs. This view emerges in later texts such as the Taiping yulan, an encyclopedia of the Song Dynasty again. Poet of the Han Dynasty called the hare on the moon Jadehase or agouti (金 兔); these phrases were often used proxy for the word "moon ". In the poem " The Old Dust " of the famous Tang poet Li Bai, it 's called " The Hare in the Moon encounters the herbs in vain ."

Tradition

In the Buddhist Śaśajâtaka ( Jataka story # 316 ), adopt a monkey, an otter, a jackal, and a rabbit on the day of the full moon ( Uposatha ) to do a work of charity.

So when an old man begged for food, the monkey gathered fruits from the trees, the otter fish, the jackal stole a lizard and a pot of milk curd. But the rabbit, who knew only to gather grass, instead offered its own body, and threw himself into the fire that the man had ignited. However, the rabbit did not burn. The old man revealed himself as a holy Sakka, and spoke very moved by the sacrifice shown: "Whoever forgets himself, is, and he is the lowest creature attain the ocean of eternal peace. May all people learn from this example and can be moved to deeds of compassion and mercy. " He moved, touched by the virtue of the hare, whose image on the moon, that it would look everyone. It should still show the smoke that rose when the rabbit jumped into the fire.

The Chinese decorated during the Moon Festival, the cake with the picture of the rabbit. They burned incense in front of his bronze figures and mounted under a full moon, a colored poster with his image greeted them reverently and then burned ceremonially.

A version of this story is found in the Japanese anthology Konjaku Monogatarishū where a fox and a monkey act as companions of the rabbit.

Central America

Similar legends meet in Mexican folklore, where the patterns are also identified on the lunar surface as a hare. According to an Aztec legend, the god Quetzalcoatl lived for a time as a human on Earth, where he began to travel and gradually tired and hungry. Since neither food nor drink were available, he supposed to die. A rabbit grazing nearby and greeted him as food to save his life. Quetzalcoatl, moved by the generous offer of the rabbit, raised him to the moon, then he brought him back to the earth and said, " Thou hast power only to be a rabbit, but everyone will remember you, behold, your picture in the light, for all men and all times. "

Another Mesoamerican legend tells the victim Nanahuatzins during the creation of the fifth sun. Humbly, he sacrificed himself in fire to become the new sun, but the wealthy god Tecciztecatl hesitated four times before he finally condescended to become a moon. Due to the cowardice Tecciztecatls the gods decided that the moon seemed less bright than the sun, and one of the gods threw a rabbit on its surface to dampen his light. Tecciztecatl is said to have assumed the form of a rabbit in his self-sacrifice, whose shadow is still there today.

Trivia

• A slightly modified version ( fox and monkey want to sacrifice the rabbits, the way these rescues but ) is found in Angelo Branduardis song "The Hare in the Moon".
• The name of the U.S. band Rabbit in the Moon comes from this legend.
• A lunar rover, which was launched on 1 December 2013, the third lunar probe Chang'e - 3 of the People's Republic of China, named玉兔( Yutu; Jadehase ). The name was chosen after an online survey. Yutu has landed on 14 December on the moon.