why there’s a rabbit on the moon – part 4

Chang'e interrupts

“dear”, said his wife, Chang’e, as Houyi drew the bow for one last effort, “honey, you’ve done a wonderful job shooting down all those suns but don’t you think it might be a good idea to keep the last one… you know, to see by and so on?”

“Although I find it annoying that you interrupted me in my mighty work, I see some wisdom in your council.” So he stayed his hand and the last sun was spared.

It is proving to be quite a bit of work to prepare three of these images in one week – so next week we’ll have to see. Maybe some infill doodles while I prepare more drawings for the folk tale. Anyway, since the holiday this is all about is this weekend – Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!!

image and text variant (cc) 2009 Hilary Farmer

why there’s a rabbit on the moon – part 1

one day ten suns rose in the sky

Once, for reasons which are not adequately explained in the histories, ten suns rose in the sky instead of the usual one. As you might expect, this caused considerable suffering. The earth became parched and the crops were quickly burnt up. Because of their great suffering, the people promised to give anything he wished to the one who could solve this terrible problem.

I am trying something a bit different – this is the beginning of a story especially for the autumn season. It is traditionally associated with the mid autumn festival in China. The festival is coming up on October 3rd this year. I am retelling the story very freely from a variety of sources and some personal input – there will be about 10 segments – I hope you enjoy it!

image and text variant (cc) 2009 Hilary Farmer