For some reason it just clicked for me why I’ve never been able to sleep during a full moon and clearly it’s because Owen’s memory echoes through time to reach me even as a kid. This thought led me to look further into the lore behind the idea of a rabbit in the moon and I found out a few interesting stories. In Chinese folklore, the moon rabbit is often portrayed as a companion of the moon goddess Chang’e, constantly pounding the elixir of life for her.
The moon goddess was mentioned in the conversation between Houston Capcom and Apollo 11 crew just before the first moon landing:
Houston: Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning there’s one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang’e has been living there for 4000 years. It seems she was banished to the moon because she stole the pill for immortality from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is only standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not recorded.
Collins: Okay, we’ll keep a close eye for the bunny girl.
It seems that there are many different angles to the story of Chang’e and her husband, but one of the most interesting takeaways to me was that apparently the Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration of her that is held on August 15th. Here’s one of the sweeter versions of the story:
In the ancient past, there was a hero named Hou Yi who was excellent at archery. His wife was Chang’e. One year, the ten suns rose in the sky together, causing great disaster to people. Yi shot down nine of the suns and left only one to provide light. An immortal admired Yi and sent him the elixir of immortality. Yi did not want to leave Chang’e and be immortal without her, so he let Chang’e keep the elixir. But Pang Meng, one of his apprentices, knew this secret. So, on the fifteenth of August in the lunar calendar, when Yi went hunting, Peng Meng broke into Yi’s house and forced Chang’e to give the elixir to him. Chang’e refused to do so. Instead, she swallowed it and flew into the sky. Since she loved very much her husband and hoped to live nearby, she chose the moon for her residence. When Yi came back and learned what had happened, he felt so sad that he displayed the fruits and cakes Chang’e liked in the yard and gave sacrifices to his wife. People soon learned about these activities, and since they also were sympathetic to Chang’e they participated in these sacrifices with Yi.
In the Buddhist story “Śaśajâtaka” (Jataka Tales: no.316), one of the Jataka Tales, a monkey, an otter, a jackal, and a rabbit resolved to practice charity on the Uposatha, believing a demonstration of great virtue would earn a great reward.
When an old man begged for food, the monkey gathered fruits from the trees and the otter collected dead fish from the river bank, while the jackal wrongfully pilfered a lizard and a pot of milk-curd. The rabbit, who knew only how to gather grass, instead offered its own body, throwing itself into a fire the man had built. The rabbit, however, was not burnt. The old man revealed himself to be Śakra, and touched by the rabbit’s virtue, drew the likeness of the rabbit on the moon for all to see. It is said the lunar image is still draped in the smoke that rose when the rabbit cast itself into the fire.
One of the most chilling references to Owen in my mind is from Watership Down, where the Grim Reaper in Lapine mythology is the Black Rabbit of Inlé. Inlé is the Lapine word for Moon.
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