Rabbit

loading...

Several cultures see a rabbit in the Moon, with the Sea of Tranquility (where Apollo 11 landed) as the rabbit’s head and the Seas of Nectar and Fertility as the rabbit’s ears. Why is the rabbit in the Moon? In a Sri Lankan legend, Buddha was once lost in a forest, and a rabbit told him the way out. Buddha thanked the rabbit and said that he was poor and hungry and thus unable to repay him. “If you are hungry,” said the rabbit, “light a fire and kill, cook, and eat me.” Buddha made a fire. The rabbit jumped in. Buddha pulled the rabbit out and placed him in the Moon. (Similar tales are told in other cultures about a rabbit’s sacrifice.) In China, the rabbit Yutu helped the moon goddess Chang’e when she was pursued by her lover, Hou Yi, after she took the immortality elixir that the gods gave him. The Chinese space program immortalized this legend by calling their lunar spacecraft Chang’e and the rover that Chang’e 3 placed on the Moon Yutu.