The Moon keeps one side facing Earth because its rotation period is the same as its orbital period. The Earth-facing side, the near side, is splotched with dark spots called maria (Latin for “seas”), which are the remnants of giant volcanic eruptions that happened early in the Moon’s history. There was no pattern to these eruptions, but as people see figures in natural phenomena like clouds and rock formations, so too have they seen figures in the Moon. Here are some of the most notable.
The Man in the Moon
The most famous of these lunar pareidolia (the name for seeing a pattern where there isn’t one) is the man in the moon. The man in the moon is either the face or the body of a man, but usually the chief representation is of a face, such as the one that got a rocket in the eye in George Méliès’s early film masterpiece A Trip to the Moon (1902). However, sometimes a whole human figure is seen, usually carrying sticks or thorns. Shakespeare mentions this burden in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush.”
The Woman in the Moon
Others have seen a woman in the Moon. The Samoans tell the story of Sina, who once during a famine was outside at night pounding bark into cloth with a mallet and board. The Moon rose, and its appearance reminded her of a giant breadfruit. Sina said to the Moon, “Why can’t you come down, and let my hungry child have a bite of you?” The Moon was greatly offended but came down nevertheless, only to take Sina, her child, mallet, and board back up into the sky.
The Rabbit in the Moon
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.
The Toad in the Moon
In another variant of the Chang’e story, Chang’e drinks the immortality elixir and is changed into a toad. The Salish people of the Pacific Coast of North America tell the story of a wolf’s love for the toad. Once upon a time, the wolf fell madly in love with the toad. The toad did not trust the wolf and went into hiding. The wolf was disconsolate, and one night the wolf prayed to the Moon to shine brightly on the world so he could find his beloved toad. The wolf saw where the toad was hiding and chased her all night. Just as the wolf was about to catch her, the toad made one last desperate giant leap…and landed on the Moon, where she remains to this day.
The Name in the Moon
Some Shiʿite Muslims believe that the pattern on the Moon is not a person or an animal but the name of Ali, who was the son-in-law of Muhammad. Ali lived from about 600 to 661 CE and was the fourth successor of Muhammad. Shiʿites regard that only Ali and his line could be the true caliphs. Such a pattern is seen as confirmation of the hadith (saying of Muhammad) that he was like the Sun and Ali was like the Moon.