Almost from the beginning of history, time, tides, animals, and man have been impacted by the Moon, both scientifically and perhaps just as often by fairytales, fables, myths, and legends. Battles have been planned, won, and lost by the available (or unavailable) light of the Moon. Indians have names for the full Moons of each month, such as June’s Strawberry Moon or September’s Full Harvest Moon, dictated by what they signify. Moon myths abound in the Inuit and Maori cultures, as they do in literature and film—from moonlight-dependent werewolves to Jules Verne’s prescient 1865 literary journey From the Earth to the Moon.
Here is the short list of some of these Moon myths and legends. Have you heard of these?
Moon Men
Just about anyone with a modicum of imagination can gaze up toward the heavens and “see” the proverbial Man in the Moon, though its origins are not well known. In Europe, people believed a man was vanquished to the Moon for a crime. According to sources, some Germanic cultures believed it was a man caught stealing from his neighbor’s hedgerow, whereas Roman legend calls him a sheep thief. In Chinese mythology, the goddess Chang’e is stranded upon the Moon after consuming a double dose of immortality potion. In Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the Man in the Moon was called Moonshine, as he was throughout the Renaissance, and carried a lantern.
Blue Moon
The expression “once in a Blue Moon” is derived from the rarity of the event, as it is a second full Moon in a calendar month, occurring only every two to three years. However, sources tell us that the blue color was misinterpreted when the two-full-moon phenomenon was reported in the March, 1946, issue of Sky and Telescope, as the color can occur with any Moon anytime depending on atmospheric conditions such as fires and volcanic eruptions.
Legends & Lore 