THE MOON

The source of night light, ''the night sun'', Sun's brother/sister, sometimes mother/father, i.e. son/daughter, deity of fruitfulness which governs the cycles of vegetation, pregnancy and growth.

Because of it, in many cultures, depending on the change of the moon, it has been represented as a pregnant woman, that is an ancestress or goddess, and the moonlight as milk. It protects farmers, travellers, seamen, merchants and thieves. A legend was recorded in which the moon represented as a pale, young man transforms into a fragile, fair haired maid. This legend records the mixing of different beliefs and religions from the pre-Christian era, or the possibility of an ancient deity to change sex. Some people believed that the Sun and the Moon were the same (one of them being the source of light during daytime and the other during night-time). Soon they were imagined as deities, a brother and a sister having an incestuous relationship, i.e. as twin brothers of diametrically opposite characters fighting for their beautiful sister's affection (the morning star). Others, believing that the night-time was reserved for love and passion, thought that the (night) sun was a handsome god coupled with Luna, a breathtaking goddess (like Volos and Voloska from the Slavic legends). The longer the history of mankind was, the more complicated legends became. Some of it happened because of the influence and mixing of different religions, some of it because of the human desire to tell more interesting stories, with more intrigues and suspense. So, one, two or three cultural archetypes would get moulded into a series of characters having different relationships (One example is the famous story of Cinderella, which exists in Croatian folk literature, in which the characters of Cinderella, her two stepsisters and stepmother actually have the same origin. Cinderella represents the night or winter aspect of the sun, her father the main deity of the heaven, the dead mother the daytime and the fruitful part of the year, the stepmother and her daughters the night-time and the winter cycle, and the prince the coming of spring.) Because of the misteriousness of the night, but also because of the presumption that songs are remains of old ritual holy scriptures, the Moon is an adventurer, wanderer, singer (in ancient Greece-Orpheus) and poet and his language is a mute language. Identifying dead ancestors with different plants and the transition of their souls into these plants has always been connected with the moon cult. The new moon, shaped like a sickle, symbolically appears in the shape of a farmer's tool among farming people. On different garments it represents a sign of protection or fertility and plenitude. On the other hand it is the predecessor of the crown, a symbol of power. This is the reason why it is the time of becoming young (You should hold your ear, jump three times and say: ''You are old and I am young!'' to the moon. It is also the time when sorcerers and vampires are born. It was an old custom in Medjimurje for one of the members of the household to announce the coming of the new moon, after which everybody crossed themselves three times, went out in the garden and kneeled facing the Moon and saying: ''May God grant me health this month. Make me young as you are.!'' Then they would bring out a bucket of water from which they would tell fortune and then wash their face. A newborn baby was brought out and shown to the new moon and the words: ''Here is a young child for you. It is young and you are old!'' were said three times so that the Moon wouldn't harm it. In pre-Christian times it was believed that, when the Moon came out, goddesses Friday and Sunday came with it, so on every first Friday of the month there were celebrations connected with prayers for good crops from the orchard and garden, and on every first Sunday of the month young girls and women went to springs to wash believing that the water had the strongest healing power at that time. The time of the waxing moon is good for ploughing, sowing plants that have a fruit above the ground, cutting your hair, christening, sharing secrets. On the contrary, during the time of the full Moon, as well as on every first Friday of the month, no work should be done (it is only recommended to cut wood, marry and conceive a child because it is going to be a boy), but you shouldn't spin or sew (because the clothes will fall apart or become your death apparel), wash, dance, leave your tools in the moonlight, drink water that reflects the ageing Moon, the moonlight shouldn't touch a wound (or it will never heal). This is also the time when sleep-walkers are born (people who have worn clothes which have been dried outside during the night are also prone to sleep-walking). A child should under no circumstances look at this ''dried up'' Moon or else it will drain it, that is the child will dry up, grow weak. Like there are solar dances in the ancient traditions (dedicated to the Sun), there are also lunar dances (dedicated to the Moon). They were mostly danced by women (the Moon either represents the female principle or is represented as a man to whom young women give themselves during a dance), the dance took place during the new or the full Moon. The waning Moon should be looked at if you have any ailments, and you should sew tuberous plants. The night between the last quarter and the new moon is the most dangerous time of the moon's cycle, governed by monsters and ghosts. In the old days peole were very afraid of the eclipse of the Moon because they thought that a horrible monster was hunting and devouring it (popular expressions used to indicate this evil time are: ''The Moon is caught!'' and ''The Moon is eaten.''), so they made deafening noise in order to chase it away. Similar to this belief is a disturbing legend of the rise of the mythical snake/dragon on a mountain which threatens to clogg every water spring causing draught.