9 Strange Moon Myths and Legends From Around the World
Since the beginning of time, the Moon has held a mystical fascination for mankind, and gets blamed for a lot of crazy things happening. How many of these legends about the Moon have you heard?
Moon Myths at a Glance
- Nine moon myths covered: Man in the Moon, blue moon, green cheese, alien spacecraft moon, the Inuit Anningan / Malina story, the African Mawu and Lisa pairing, the Maori Rona, full-moon lunacy, werewolves.
- What the Moon actually does to us: drives tides (real and large), modestly affects sleep duration on bright full-moon nights, and is widely (but inconclusively) blamed for everything else.
- The blue-moon error: the “second full moon in a calendar month” definition stems from a misread 1946 Sky & Telescope article. Actual blue-tinted Moons are atmospheric optics, after fires and volcanic eruptions.
- Best bet for a full-moon night: a clear horizon at moonrise, binoculars, and a porch chair.
Almost from the beginning of history, time, tides, animals, and humans have been impacted by the Moon, both scientifically and perhaps just as often by fairytales, fables, moon myths, and legends. Battles have been planned, won, and lost by the available (or unavailable) light of the Moon. Indigenous peoples 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.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth and orbits the planet at an average distance of 384,400 km. That cold technical fact is exactly what makes the long human history of moon myths so interesting: the same dot of reflected sunlight has been called god, criminal, cheese, spacecraft, lover, and warning, depending on who was looking up.
Moon Myths and Legends
Here is the short list of some of these moon myths and legends. Have you heard of these?
1. 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.
2. 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 any time depending on atmospheric conditions such as fires and volcanic eruptions.
3. Green Cheese
While the thought of consuming green cheese isn’t exactly a culinary coup, the concept of the Moon being made of green cheese has roots in fable and proverb. According to accounts, a “simpleton” sees the Moon’s reflection in the (green) water and considers it a wheel of cheese. Or, the green cheese in the reflection may imply cheese that has not yet matured.
4. Little Green Men
In 1970, Michael Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov of the former Soviet Academy of Sciences posited the Moon may in fact be an alien spacecraft, believing it was a hollowed-out planetoid created by beings with superior technology.
5. Moon Diet
Inhabiting Alaska, Greenland, and the Arctic, the Inuit call the Moon god Anningan and the sun goddess Malina, who is Anningan’s sister. According to legend, after a sibling quarrel, Malina stormed off and her brother followed. Always in pursuit (or perhaps to apologize, depending on interpretation), Anningan forgets to eat and grows thinner, explaining the Moon’s waning phase. When the Moon appears to disappear completely, Inuit believe Anningan has gone to find food. When he ultimately catches up to his sister, a rare event, the result causes a solar eclipse.
6. Moon Dance
In Africa, Mawu, the Moon god, is said to be linked forever with the sun goddess Lisa. Solar and lunar eclipses are said to be related to their conjugal times.
7. Moon Child
Inevitably, sometimes controversially, associated with fertility, many believe the moon’s influence over love, sex, and reproduction is part of a rhythm seen in the natural world. When the Moon waxes, life is said to grow and abundance is present, whereas desire diminishes during its waning cycle. In New Zealand, Maori myth says that a young girl named Rona displeased the Moon so that he seized her and took her far away to him. Grabbing onto a tree, she dragged it with her, the tree symbolizing fertility. See ways the Moon can affect your health.
8. Moon-atics
Psychiatric facilities have reported patients become more unruly during a full Moon, and individuals say pain increases during that time. Given a choice, maybe it’s better to opt for surgery, a root canal, or bikini wax during a waning Moon.
9. Werewolves
And don’t forget about this legendary monster who emerges when the Moon is full.
Moon Lore by Culture, A Quick Map
| Culture | Moon figure | What the lore explains |
|---|---|---|
| European medieval / Germanic | Man in the Moon, a thief banished there | The dark patches on the lunar surface read as a human shape |
| Chinese | Chang’e, exiled goddess on the Moon with a jade rabbit | Mid-Autumn Festival (Mooncake Festival) |
| Inuit (Alaska, Greenland) | Anningan chasing his sister Malina | Why the Moon wanes; why eclipses happen |
| West African (Fon) | Mawu (Moon) and Lisa (Sun) | Eclipses are the divine couple meeting |
| Maori (New Zealand) | Rona caught by the Moon with her tree | The pattern of light and dark on the full Moon |
| European folklore | Werewolf transformations at full Moon | The link between moonlight, animal behavior, and human madness |
Will the Sky Be Clear for the Next Full Moon?
A full Moon is only useful if you can see it. Check your region’s long-range outlook to plan a moonrise walk.
See Your Extended ForecastFrequently Asked Questions About Moon Myths
Why is there a Man in the Moon at all?
Pareidolia: the human brain finds familiar shapes in random patterns. The dark patches of basalt that make up the lunar maria (the seas) form a roughly face-like or full-figure shape when you look straight at the full Moon, which most cultures named long before the maria were understood as cooled lava plains.
Is a Blue Moon actually blue?
Almost never. The popular “second full Moon in a calendar month” definition was popularized by a 1946 Sky & Telescope article that misread an older folk almanac, and the Moons it refers to are usually their normal silver. Actual blue-tinged Moons happen rarely after large volcanic eruptions or wildfires that throw fine smoke into the upper atmosphere.
Does the full Moon really make people crazy?
The studies are mixed. Most rigorous meta-analyses find no measurable spike in psychiatric admissions, ER visits, or violent crime around the full Moon. There is some evidence sleep duration drops modestly on bright moonlit nights, which may indirectly raise irritability. The “lunar effect” is real cultural belief, weak scientific signal.
What is the Chinese Moon goddess Chang’e known for?
Drinking a double dose of the elixir of immortality and being exiled to the Moon as a result, where she lives with a jade rabbit pounding herbs. She is the central figure of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the second-largest holiday on the Chinese calendar after the Lunar New Year.
Why do werewolves transform at the full Moon?
The link between full-Moon nights and animal behavior goes back to classical and medieval Europe, but the specific “transforms only at the full Moon” rule is a 20th-century invention, largely fixed in the 1941 film The Wolf Man, and reinforced by every werewolf movie since.
Where does the Maori Rona story come from?
Traditional Maori cosmology of Aotearoa (New Zealand). The story explains the dark shapes on the full Moon: Rona, sent for water, cursed the Moon when it slipped behind a cloud, and the Moon snatched her up, along with the tree she clung to.
Was the Moon ever seriously thought to be a spacecraft?
The 1970 Vasin-Shcherbakov “Spaceship Moon” paper proposed exactly that, claiming the Moon was a hollow planetoid built and parked in orbit by an alien intelligence. It was never accepted by mainstream science and has been thoroughly debunked by lunar seismology data from Apollo, but the idea persists in fringe circles.
For more lunar reading, see phases of the Moon, supermoons, October’s full Hunter’s Moon, and the full-Moon “lunacy” debate.
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Beth Herman
Beth Herman is a freelance writer with interests in healthy living and food, family, animal welfare, architecture and design, religion, and yoga. She writes for a variety of national and regional publications, institutions, and websites.
- Beth Herman
- Beth Herman
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I had a tooth pulled when the sign was in the head because it hurt so bad I couldn’t stand the pain! The next day I was literally banging on the hospital’s door begging for something to stop tbe pain, nothing they gave me helpped! One month latter I had another tooth pulled. I waited for the sign to be in the feet. My wife asked me the next day if I had any pain! I had NO pain at all!
I need to have an top back molar pulled in June 2015 and I a September Libra. I was looking at June 9, 2015 or June 11, 2015. When would be the best Tuesday or Thursday in June 2015?
Where can I find the chart with the man on it that states what the sign is on the man?
I need to have a tooth pulled and if I get it done when sign is on the knees or lower you do not have the bleeding or the pain!
Glenn, Here is the Man of Many Signs. The dates listed are for the Sun, though. You can find the Moon’s place in the Zodiac using our Zodiac Calendar.
In Japan the moon depicts a rabbit making mochi the trditional way.
as always good information thank you.
comments 1 a blue moon occurs every 14 month, 2 lunatics a person who spent to much time in the moon light. 3 the police….. the police the E R hospitals….. the bartenders…… undertakers….. veterinarians….will all tell you they get busy on the full moon..
Thank you Farmer’s Almanac for another fascinating article about Moon Myths. Keep up the great job!!!!
I do know that a person borned under the sign of Cancer is in a really GOOD mood during a full moon. Whereas a person borned under the sign of Virgo is cranky, and moody during the full moon phase. Not sure why.
ok