Pointing at the Moon

 Interview:

Are there any events of superstition that you heard?

 

“We were told not to point our fingers to the moon, or kids aren’t allowed to point fingers at the moon, in general, otherwise get punished by, like a god of the moon.

But particularly mentioned during the Mid-Autumn festival because you view the moon, and children tend to point to it.”

 

Background:

My father described this as something that his mother and other adults told him as he was growing up.  Some of the most common search results reveal that this is one of the traditional pieces of Hmong folklore.  The superstition goes, that if you point at the moon, the woman on the moon, known as Chang E, would come and cut the ear of the person who points at her.  While my father is from Taiwan, many other east Asian countries share this superstition.   While he told this story, he doesn’t believe in the superstition himself.

 

Analysis:

This story seemed a bit like the modern bloody Mary to me.  Often superstitions have a dual function to make children behave or teach morals but that doesn’t seem to be the motivation behind this superstition.  These stories fill me with a reckless curiosity to test the superstition to see if their promised curses really befall the performer.