Nature Active – Myanmar Burma Trip Information and Travel Assistance

This is a typical Myanmar story. It has been told to children’s for generations and has become a legend in Myanmar. It goes as follows.

Once there was an old man in a village. He mainly earned his living by pounding rice on hire. He had no friends or companions except for an old rabbit. For the whole day (and part of the night under the moon), the old man pounded the paddy. Meanwhile, the old rabbit crouched nearby eating the chaff that his master threw away.

On one moonlit night the old man, while pounding the paddy said to himself, “It is sheer waste of time when I shift the grain from chaff after pounding. If only I could take the help of an old woman who could do the shifting and also give company to me and my rabbit?” The Moon-goddess heard his words and felt pity on him. The next day, she took the form of an old woman and came to the old man to give him company. The whole day she sifted the grain from the chaff with a sieve, while the old man pounded the paddy. At night fall, she went back to the sky.

She kept on doing it. Everyday the Moon-goddess transformed herself into the form of an old woman and gave the old man and his rabbit some company. At night fall she always went away because at night, she had to go and look after her moon. If it was a moonless night, the old man did not need her help as he did not worked in the dark. Weeks went by in the same routine. One day the old man asked “Who are you and Why do you go away when night falls?” The old woman replied that she was the Moon goddess. “Take me and my rabbit to your Moon”, pleaded the old man, “and let us live with you forever. We feel so lonely without you”. The Moon goddess was melted by his words and took the old man and his rabbit to her moon. They are still believed to be living there forever.

Parents ask their children to view the full moon. When the moon is full little children gaze at it carefully. If they are not crying, they can see in the moon, the old man still pounding rice and his rabbit still eating the chaff. This is the story that parents tell their crying children in order to console them.