Red Ajah Autumn Fair: Myths and Legends

[Panchi]

Many years ago, there was a king in China. He was a brave man who did lots of belifits to the people. He admired a beautiful girl and made her stay in the palace so that he could see her whenever he wanted. But, the girl did not like the frightful figure of the king. She seldomly spoke a word in the palace. Each time the king went to her place, he used to show her some treasures and brought some gifts to the girl in order to make her smile and speak.

 

On every full moon, the girl would burned incenses and wax candles to worship the moon. People believed that there was a god lived in the moon that made the moon shine. Girls who wanted to be a beauty and have a handsome husband should worship the moon.

 

One day, the full moon of the eighth month, the king brought three herbs pills to show her.

 

“This is from the priest of the palace. If I eat them up, I can live forever.” He exclaimed.

 

This was the first time the girl stuffs he brought.

 

He continued,”If you and I both take one, we will both live forever. No one can take you away from me!”

 

Because the king afraid of the pills would have side effects. He forced the girl to take the pill first. If nothing wrong with her after taking the pill, he would take it immediately. However, the girl recognized that if she took all three of them, the king would left her eventually. Therefore, the first time, she spoke to the king,”Let me have a look of the pills first. Otherwise, I will not try at all.”

 

The king surprisingly the girl talked to him. So, he handed the pills to the girl. She did not say anything but eat all of them. The king was extremely angry. He wanted to kill her.

 

At this moment, the girl started to fly. She could fly because of the intake of the pills. The king could not catch her, but watched her flew toward the moon and disappeared.

 

After that, people believed that there was a beautiful girl stay in the moon with a little old man and a bunny. The old man was believed to be the god inside the moon and the bunny was his pet. Day after day, Chinese believed that there were people lived in the moon. Their movement made the dark spot when we looked up to the moon. People used to worship the girl to glorify her chastity. So, on every full moon of the mid-Autumn became a festival in order to memorize her.

 

Moon in Chinese Celestial Cosmology

 

The choice of the festival’s theme — celebrating the glories and mysteries of the moon — was a natural. Along with the sun, the moon has long been an object of human curiosity and worship. “It is probable that sun and moon were early held to be deities and that they were the first visible objects of worship,” according to the book “Sketches of the History of Man.” To the most ancient ancestors of the Chinese, the sun and the moon were considered the “chief objects of veneration,” according to records dating to the Han dynasty emperor Wu Di (157-87 B.C.).

 

In ancient Asian mythology, there is a strong relationship between the moon and water. The moon is said to regulate reservoirs and supplies of water. There is a suggestion that the moon produces fertility and freshness in the soil. The moon’s role in bountiful harvests is widely recognized during autumns around the world.

 

In Chinese celestial cosmology, the moon represents the female principle, or yin. During ancient autumn Moon Festivals, women took center stage because the moon is considered feminine. Only women took part in Moon Festival rituals on the night of the full moon. Altars would be set up in households, and when the full moon appeared, women would make offerings of incense, candles, fruit, flowers, and mooncakes.

 

The enduring legend of the Moon Goddess, Chang O (Chang-E in other transliterations), reflects the feminine principle of yin, as opposed to the masculine principle of yang, which is symbolized by the sun.

[Panchi]

1. The Lady - Chang Er

 

It's said that in the old old days, the earth once had ten suns circling over it. Each day the suns' mother took one sun to illuminate the earth. But one day all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The Emperor of Heaven ordered a strong archer Hou Yi to save the earth. He succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns. One day, Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However his beautiful wife Chang Er drank the elixir of life in order to save the people from her husband's tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating and flew to the moon. Hou Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he didn't shoot down the moon.

Another version of the story is that Hou Yi built a beautiful jade palace for the Goddess of the Western Heaven. The Goddess was very happy and she gave Hou Yi a special pill that contained elixir of life and he could use it after he had accomplished certain things. However, Chang Er took it without telling her husband. The Goddess of the Western Heaven was very angry and Chang Er was sent to the moon forever.

 

2. The Man - Wu Kang

 

Wu Kang was a shiftless fellow who changed apprenticeships all the time. One day he decided that he wanted to be an immortal. Wu Kang then went to live in the mountains where he importuned an immortal to teach him. First the immortal taught him about the herbs used to cure sickness, but after three days his characteristic restlessness returned and he asked the immortal to teach him something else. So the immortal decided to teach him chess. But after a short while Wu Kang was not interested any more. Then Wu Kang was given the books of immortality to study. Of course, Wu Kang became bored within a few days, and asked if they could travel to some new and exciting place. Angered with Wu Kang's impatience, the master banished Wu Kang to the Moon Palace telling him that he must cut down a huge cassia tree before he could return to earth. Though Wu Kang chopped day and night, the magical tree restored itself with each blow, and thus he is up there chopping still.

 

3. The Hare - Jade Rabbit

 

In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men and begged for something to eat from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the rabbit, empty-handed, offered his own flesh instead, jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself. The sages were so touched by the rabbit's sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the "Jade Rabbit."

 

So what do you think of these myths? Have you got our own myths to share?

[Torrie]

I wants some pills that make me fly. Good stories, Pank! I love when you bring in your mythical tales.

 

 

I love the one about Chang Er. It is romantic that he did not shoot the moon down because she was in it.

[Moon Sedai]

I love stories about the Moon.... and not just because of my nickname. :D

 

Did you know that in many mythological systems, the Moon deity is Female while the Sun deity is the male?

 

Symbolically, this could represent the idea that Women are always thought to be in flux, changeable, cyclical. {And that Men wanna be the bright star at the center of the universe :P}

And they are often either Lovers, Siblings (usually twins) or both.

 

In Japan, however, it is the opposite.

 

Amaterasu is the Sun Goddess, the Rising Sun, the beautiful red spot in the middle of the White Flag. She is supposed to be a great beauty, and the grand ancestress of the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Tsuki-Yomi is the Moon God, her brother. {I don't remember too much about him, except that he has some strange obsession with table manners}.

They were "born" when their father washed tears from his face after going to the Underworld to rescue his late wife (unsuccessfully). Their brother, Susano-o, the Storm God, was born when their father blew his nose.

[Panchi]

These rae my favourites. These myths involve one of my favourite friuts- apple.

 

Judeo-Christian folklore

 

In Judeo-Christian mythology, the apple is the tree of forbidden knowledge, which gave Adam and Eve their knowledge of good and evil. It is now believed that the original fruit referred to in the bible was a fig or pomegranate, but when the legend traveled to Western Europe, the fruit was replaced by their sacred Apple.

 

Norse Folklore

 

In Norse tradition, the Apple is the tree of immortality. The Goddess Idunn was the keeper of the apples, which she fed the Norse Gods and Goddesses to keep them forever young. Apple wands were also used in Norse love rituals. To the Norse, apples represented long life, wisdom and love.

 

Greek Folklore

 

The Earth Goddess, Gaia, gave Hera, the Queen of Heaven, an apple tree when she married the Chief God, Zeus. That tree was kept in the Garden of the Hesperides, guarded by the dragon, Ladon. One of Hercules’ tasks was to fetch an apple from that tree.

 

Paris signaled his judgment of the fairest of the Goddesses by giving Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, an apple.

 

Polish Folklore

 

In ancient Silesia (now part of Poland), the apple tree was a “dream tree”. Sleeping under the tree could induce dreams, or merely placing an apple under her pillow on New Year’s Eve, would induce a midnight dream in a young woman, of her future husband. (Altman, page 190)

European Folklore

 

On the dark side, in Medieval fairytales such as Snow White, the Queen (a powerful sorceress) used a magic apple to curse the young Princess into terminal sleep. The Medieval church believed enchanted apples could be given to a victim to cause demonic possession.

 

British and Celtic Folklore

 

In Celtic tradition, the Otherwordly Avalon was also known as the Avallach, the Isle of Apples, ruled by Fairy Queen, Morgan le Fay. (Freeman, page 196) This is the land of fairies and the dead, where King Arthur was taken to be healed by his sister, Morgan. Like their cousins to the North, the Celts attributed the power of healing and youth, or rebirth, to apples. Apples are one of the magical trees, part of the Celtic Ogham tree alphabet, known as Quert.

 

In Hereforedshire, April, 1768, twelve women bearing Apple tree branches walked in the funeral cortege of Velters Cornewall of Moccas. The apples probably symbolized the British after-life. (Pennick, page 52) Apples are sometimes buried in churchyards in an effort to feed the dead. Apples also symbolize rebirth.

 

In Ireland the quest for wisdom was realized by pursuing the white doe under a wild Apple tree. (Pepper)

 

In Medieval Irish story Connla the Fair, an Irish prince, fell in love with a beautiful Faerie woman, who arrived on the Irish shore in a crystal boat. She offered him an apple from the world of Faerie, and he took the fatal bite, and was hers forever. They set sail for her magical island where the trees bore both fruit and blossom, and winter never came. There, they ate an ever replenishing stock of apples, which kept them young forever. (Freeman, page 197)

 

An Otherworldly apple tree magically makes music, which can dispel “all want or woe or weariness of the soul.” (Freeman, page 197)

 

In Irish lore, the God Óengus offered three miraculous apple trees from the magical woods, Bruig na Bóinde (New Grange), as a wedding gift for the one of the Milesians. One was in full bloom, one shedding its blossoms, and one in fruit. (Mountfort, page 103) The deliberate felling of an Apple Tree was punishable by death in ancient Irish law. (Gifford, page 97)

 

In the Welsh Câd Goddeu (The Battle of the Trees), the Apple is described as the noblest tree of them all, the tree that symbolized poetic immortality. (Gifford, page 97)

 

Druid Folklore

 

The sacred Druid plant, an t-uil-oc (Mistletoe), is often found on Apple trees, making it an especially holy tree to the Druids, along with the Oak.

 

 

Drawing by Cedar Sposato In the Irish Druid tradition, the Silver Bough is cut from a magical Apple tree, where silver apple shaped bells played a mystical tune, which could lull people into a trance state. Druids could make contact with the Otherworld during a trance enhanced by this silver apple bough.

 

The Apple Tree is closely linked to Druids, in their aspect as magicians and shamans. The tree is often used when the Druid undergoes a magical transformation or journeys in the Otherworld. In The Voyage of Bran, an Otherworldly woman appears with an apple branch laden with bells, entrancing Bran with wondrous tales of the Otherworld. So enraptured is he by this damsel with the magical apple branch, that he sets sail immediately for the enchanted shores, having epic adventures on his journey. (Blamires, page 142)

 

“In Druid lore, the essence of three sacred apples growing on the Tree of Knowledge came from three drops that fell from Cerridwen’s cauldron, which correspond with the Druid’s most holy symbol, the Three Rays of Light.” (Gifford, page 99)

 

The Druid Merlin was purported to work in a magical Apple Grove guarded by birds, revealed to him by his master, Gwendolleu. He was said to receive the gift of prophecy from the Faerie Queen, conferred through the consumption of one of her magic apples. Merlin was also said to take shelter under an apple tree during his bout with madness.

 

Thomas the Rhymer, of Ercledoune, in 13th Century Scotland, was warned not to eat the Otherworldly Apple offered by the Faerie Queen, or he would be unable to return to mortal life.

 

Bards (poets) and Ovates (shamans) carried apple branches, (with bronze, silver, or gold bells), called the Craobh Ciuil (Branch of Reason) as symbols of their office. (Blamires, page 142). “As with all trees whose fruits are the basis of alcoholic drinks, the apple tree has close associations with divine inspiration and poetry.” (Gifford, page 94)

 

La Mas Ushal was brewed at the end of October in preparation for the Druid’s “Day of the Apple” on November 1st. This recipe has come down to us as the Wassail Bowl, made from baked or roasted crab apples, brown ale or cider, honey, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, and ginger.

 

 

 

So what do you think about apples now. To learn more about them, click here.

[Mystica]

That's a very interesting outline you have here, Pankhuri. I'm a bit amazed no one participated in this discussion. Bunch o' slackers, I tell ya'. Good job, hon. They don't know what they were missing.

 

I always find it very interesting to learn where certain habits, traditions, sayings come from. Sometimes the origins are as much removed from what we currently link to it that it seems farfetched or made-up.