I went in search of folklore surrounding this week's festival and was hopeful to find a wonderful Asian tale with timeless life lessons. Instead, I came upon the following story of how The Moon Lady ascended to the moon. Bear with me, I swear I am not making this up.
Once upon the time (in Vietnam), there was a man named Chu Coi who found a lucky tree that had special healing powers. Because the tree was sacred, people were forbidden to...wait for it.....urinate at the base of the tree. (Yes, you read that correctly). Unfortunately (or not), Chu Coi's wife, Chi Hang, forgot the rule and urinated on the tree. One day, while she was sitting on a branch of said sacred tree, the tree grew and grew until it reached the moon. From that day, Chi Hang has had to live on the moon as punishment for her crime.
Please know that I mean absolutely no disrespect to the wonderful people of Vietnam, but that is ridiculous. Where is the life lesson or the moral-of-the-story? Is poor Chi Hang so amazingly busy that she couldn't remember that one simple rule? Was Chu Coi too busy to put up a sign to remind people?
Rock on Moon Lady. I will personally be celebrating you this week because sometimes when you have to go, you have to go.
Public urination even in folklore....amazing! I don't think we have such a tale, but I am on the hunt! xoxo
ReplyDeleteShe polluted that poor tree and deserves to live on the moon. Maybe if we stop cancelling the moon program we can send someone to fetch her.
ReplyDeleteThe Vietnamese were first with the whole "leave no trace" movement, huh?
ReplyDeleteLove it. If the Filipinos sent all their public urinating offenders to the moon there would be no men left in this country!
ReplyDeleteBTW, Thanks for the website. It's awesome and I'm going to be wasting a ton of time on there. Do you have an account and if so I want to see your "sets". So much lingo I don't know.
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