THE full moon this month will occur tomorrow — the 15th day of the seventh month of the Chinese calendar.
The Chinese are used to relying on the lunar calendar.
Every full moon is celebrated according to the tradition of burning incense and praying.
According to Chinese mythology, the Moon Goddess carries the name Chang Er.
She was unhappily married to a Chinese superhero who shot down nine of the 10 suns in the sky to give people the chance to live.
But this superhero neglected Chang Er.
So one day, she stole a magic potion from her husband, and as soon as she had taken it, she rose into the sky towards the moon.
There, near the moon she is supposed to have settled down and spent eternity with her favourite pet — a magic rabbit.
This ancient tale has been told in China for thousands of years and has been included in nursery rhymes.
Ever since my childhood, whenever I look up into the sky during a full moon, I would remember the tale of this beautiful lady in the moon.
That is the power of a nursery rhyme.
The moon has always been the object of admiration for Chinese poets and philosophers.
This year, the Moon Festival is also celebrated together with the Hungry Ghost Festival, which falls at the end of seventh month.
As you read this article, all the ghosts are released from hell to enjoy their brief respite among human company.
That is why the Chinese never get married or start a new business during the seventh month of the lunar calendar to avoid conflict with residents from the other world.
According to western psychologists, the moon seems to exercise a strange power on the human mind.
Some people believe that during the full moon, people would behave abnormally.
I even met one man who, whenever the moon was full, would behave in an insane manner.
He could only be appeased by prayers and the burning of incense.
But as soon as the full moon past, he would return to his old self.
Aristotle and Pliny the Elder thought that human behaviour could be rendered irrational by the appearance of the full moon.
We all know that the moon has something to do with the movement of the tides, and so, Aristotle believed that somehow the moon affects our behaviour.
We human beings have always been fascinated by the movement of the moon.
The beauty of the full moon has been the subject of many poems, especially among Chinese poets.
The connection between the moon and human moods is primordial.
The moon has always featured prominently in our system of cosmology.
According to history, the study of the moon was practised in Mesopotamia since the fifth century BC.
It has been proven that the Babylonians were the first civilisation known to possess a functional theory of the planets.
Since five decades ago, we have developed a much more scientific understanding of the operations of the heavens.
The space race between the then Soviet Union and the United States of America has given us much modern knowledge of the moon and the sun.
The first man who went to space was cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union in 1961.
Eight years later, the United States succeeded in landing their man, Neil Armstrong, on the moon in July 1969.
Just a few days ago, Armstrong passed away at the age of 82.
His achievement would be remembered by many generations to come.
Although by now we know that the moon is an empty place, but the romanticism of the inhabited moon still holds strong in our consciousness.
Tonight as I look up to the sky, I will imagine how the rabbit is going to play with the Moon Goddess.
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