Katrina and Geoff kick off the holiday season! That’s right, the holidays are just around the corner, starting with the Mid Autumn Moon Festival, an immensely important holiday throughout eastern Asia. In celebration, Katrina retells a Vietnamese folktale brought to our attention by a listener suggestion. We also discuss another tale from Vietnam about why some people believe that they see the image of a very important rabbit on the moon.
In this episode of the podcast, Geoff and Katrina start off the end of the year holiday season by talking about the Mid Autumn Moon Festival in eastern Asia. Last year we celebrated by telling the story of Chang’e the Chinese Goddess of the Moon (Ep. 32) and after that episode came out, a friend of Katrina (thank you Amy!) sent a message about a story that her father, a Vietnamese American, used to tell her when she was little around the Mid Autumn Moon Festival. Katrina immediately put it on the schedule for September 2021 and after a year, the time has finally arrived to talk about “Chu Cuoi the Moon Boy”.
Katrina and Geoff first discuss how no one version of this story is the “most correct” version and so if your Vietnamese parent told you this story in a different way from our podcast, that is perfect and beautiful. It means that the folktale is still alive within the culture.
The version of this story that Katrina and Geoff ended up using is from Vietnamese Children’s Favorite Stories retold by Tran Thi Minh Phuoc that is put out by Tuttle Publishing. And in this book the story is titled, “Mr. Cuoi Under the Banyan Tree”.
Katrina then retells the story of “Chu Cuoi the Moon Boy”. The tale starts with Chu Cuoi discovering a magic Banyan tree when he watches a tiger use the leaves from said tree to heal her injured cub. He moves the Banyan tree over to his own garden and later uses the leaves to save the life of a local woman who becomes his wife. But tragedy strikes when dirty water falls onto the magical Banyan tree and Chu Cuoi is taken up to the moon to live for eternity. On the 15th day of the 8th month of the year (Full Moon of the 8th moon/MidAutumn Moon), people can look up at the moon and try to see Chu Cuoi and his Banyan Tree on the moon.
Geoff and Katrina discuss the fascination with the moon and stories that are created around the world. It is the closest celestial body to earth and we get to see the same side of it all of the time. They also discuss which came first, the stories or the pictures that people think that they see on the surface of the moon.
The conversation naturally turns to the Jade Rabbit on the moon. Katrina was already familiar with the story of The Hare on the Moon, which is a story about how Rabbit was honored by Buddha for its selflessness. It is a story that she has retold in The Fairy Teller’s Instagram stories (that can still be found in the highlights). So she wasn’t too startled when she found a very similar story retold in Vietnamese Children’s Favorite Stories, as Tho Ngoc, the Jade Rabbit.
Katrina retells the story of The Jade Rabbit, a rabbit who was always trying her best to be an example of loving kindness to all of her friends. As the animals of the forest became better and better friends and community citizens through her good example, a “genie” decides to put their goodness to the test. During this test, they prove to be the kindest animals in the forests and rabbit is rewarded for a selfless act.
This leads Katrina and Geoff to have a conversation about what this story teaches about selflessness and self sacrifice. They wonder if Jade Rabbit went too far or if different types of stories, such as local stories about hero firefighters, also teach these lessons. These stories are used to reinforce the cultural value behind being willing to die for the well being of others in the community. But Geoff and Katrina wonder if our generations interest in mental illness, makes us uncomfortable with the idea of being a martyr for our cultural values.
Katrina and Geoff wrap up this episode talking about the significance of the Banyan tree in the story of Chu Cuoi. There are many plants that make their appearances in folktales and it is usually because they are plants with interesting characteristics and the Banyan tree is no exception.
Books Used:
Vietnamese Children’s Favorite Stories by Tran Thi Minh Phuoc
The Fairy Tellers 