The Sunday News
IN many world communities, the moon is acknowledged as having some role to play in their lives and cultural practices. The moon was seen as tied or linked to the menstrual circle of women.
“Mens” is the Latin word for the moon, inyanga among the Ndebele people. It is true of other languages where the menstrual condition is referred to as the moon. The moon is the Earth’s single moon whose lunar cycle takes about 28 days which happens to t be the case with the duration of women’s menstrual cycle.
In my various writings spanning several decades I came across occasions when the moon played a key role in people’s lives. In fact, it was for that reason and observations that led me to embark upon the current “Journey to the Stars.”
Moon
It is clear that ancient communities shared a common worldview and thought. It is ideal therefore to see what lunar traits were shared in common. In the first place, the moon differs from the sun in that unlike the sun it rises from the western sky.
The sun is always the same shape and size from the view of terrestrial observers. It rises in the eastern sky and sets in the west. This is something that the two cosmic bodies share in common.
Both rise, journey and set in the opposite direction. The duration of their cycles differ. The moon has a cycle of 28 plus days whereas the earth takes takes about 365 days to complete its cycle around the sun.
However, the fundamental trait of the moon that gave rise to its importance was its changing form. The moon emerges in the western sky as a crescent, ucezu, suggesting it is a small cosmic body.
Besides, it is close to the earth, the planet that it orbits.
The moon does not retain its form throughout its journey around Planet Earth. Lunar movement, coupled with its growing (waxing) is reminiscent of women’s enlarging wombs as babies grow in them.
That immediately links the moon to femininity. Its movement around Planet Earth (lunar cycle) compares with the menstrual cycle as indicated above. It is the change in form that gave it some due and symbolic recognition.
That transformation was perceived as representing and expressing birth, growth, death and rebirth. It is about death and resurrection, through which eternity and continuity are facilitated. This cycle renders the idea of eternity, perpetuity, continuity, and unendingness.
That movement and positon in the firmament gives rise to changing potency of the moon. The moon has power and capacity to resurrect after its “death”. The ancients recognized that phenomenon and sought to replicate it on earth- “As above, So below”
A rising moon is sometimes perceived as different moons emerging from their storage pit/room. When we deal with community perceptions, we shall see some of the lunar origin myths and behaviour.
The rise, growth, death and rebirth of the moon promised hope and a fullness of life. That was symbolically represented and expressed through the fullness of the moon when it was at maximum potency-the ideal time for performing rituals and ceremonies whose timing took advantage of lunar potency in the hope that the community itself was being reborn, revitalized and re-energized.
It was all about symbolic manipulation. It was no wonder therefore, that communities engaged in chants to welcome the moon. They were in fact chanting to express renewal of life as represented and occasioned by the rising of a new moon. The moon controlled several cultural and economic activities and events on the terrestrial plane.
Communities attached origin myths to cosmic bodies. Communities did the naming of their children in terms of observed links between celestial bodies and events taking place on earth, on both the natural and cultural planes. It is to these perceptions that we wish to turn so that we have a better explanation and interpretation of why communities linked many of their activities and practices with the movement of the moon.
Where human beings are confronted with new situations, they put on the caps of previously held knowledge and use it to understand and create new knowledge. The immediate environment is the frontline in projecting terrestrial ideas on cosmic bodies.
In teaching and learning, learners move from the familiar and known to the unfamiliar and unknown.
This will become apparent when we deal with the various communities and their perceptions relating to the moon. Among the Tswana people the markings on the moon are explained and interpreted as a woman who is carrying a child who was supposed to be attending a sacred festival.
The woman apparently did not attend the festival. As pointed out above, the community related to the moon based on their understanding of socio-economic realities within their communities. In their society, women collect firewood for use in the homes.
The womenfolk looked after babies. As a result, what they saw on the moon was what they were familiar with and projected that to the moon. Further, the holding and attached importance of festivals is underscored.
“As below, so above.” The terrestrial experiences and knowledge including gender-based allocations of roles was projected to the heavens to make sense out of it.
Humans always seek explanations and interpretations of the world around them. It starts with the immediate terrestrial environment and extends to the more distant cosmic environment. The heavens and earth are interlinked.
Another community posits that a long time ago the moon and the sun were great pals. One day their friendship was broken and the two cosmic bodies quarreled. The more powerful sun managed to overpower the moon, threw it down, and landed on mud.
This story helps explain why the moon is not as bright as the sun. It is possible that the concerned community thought the moon emitted its own light, when in fact it reflects light from the sun. When we refer to the potency of the moon, we are in reality talking about reflected light energy from the sun, a star. Planets and moons do not produce light of their own. The celestial bodies power life on earth.
The Xhosa people of South Africa perceived the world as ending with a sea that concealed a vast and deep pit filled with new moons ready for use. To them each new lunation truly begins with a new moon. In their understanding whenever a moon appeared in the western sky, it was a new moon with the old one having died. This perception underscored the concept of renewal that was then taken advantage on the cultural, social, political, economic and spiritual fronts.
Language carries and is a repository of a people understands of phenomena. When properly excavated, we can glean their worldview, their cosmology and perceptions. It is not about reality or the truth. For any community what it posits is real to it as its consequences are real, and they behave according to their understanding of the phenomena. The moon, it would appear, is associated with fertility by virtue of its changing form as it waxes.
Stars
This compares with a woman’s womb that gets bigger and bigger as the foetus grows within the uterus. The link is obvious as the term for menstruation is derived from the Latin word, ‘mens,’ for the moon. This happens to be the case with regard to the growth and development of a foetus.
The critical developmental stages are comparable: birth/rebirth, growth/development, death, resurrection, ad infinitum. What communities perceived of the moon had a bearing on their relationship with it. Both its presence and absence in the sky influenced cultural, social, spiritual and political activities.
When it emerged as a crescent moon in the western horizon, there were chants that accompanied it. It was a welcome development dependent on what the communities understood regarding the moon. Terminologies used to describe the appearance of the moon were similar. “Inyanga isihlezi, mwedzi wagala.” The two expressions are used in the IsiNdebele language and TjiKalanga, respectively. Literally, the moon has perched, landed or sat down.
The manner of sitting was carefully observed as it was regarded as the harbinger of good or bad health depending on its disposition. Oral chants were some sort of prayers, jubilation and triumph. In the next article, we shall look at the lessons being given by a new moon, lessons that led to communities celebrating the emergence of a crescent moon.
