Category Archives: Myths

Sacred narratives

Man on the Moon

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Waitress
Residence: Glendale, AZ
Language: English

“when i was younger my dad told me when he was in a really bad place he saw this man in the moon and he basically told my dad to keep going and just a bunch of advice so i’ve always kind of believe in a ‘man on the moon’

he always just looked to the sky and thought that was where we ended up when we passed, i think the man in the moon thing kind of goes with the fact he thought each star had a family of souls and when u passed u’d be with your family in the stars again. he just had really nice outlooks on the afterlife, he grew up Christian but i think he created his own beliefs as we all do in life”

Context: As far as the informant knew, her dad had always seen the man on the moon. He would tell her about the man all throughout her life. She had been extremely close to her dad growing up, and he passed away when she was in 6th grade. 

Analysis: In many places around the world, there has been a myth or legend about the man of the moon. This is often attributed to the face-like patches on the moon called lunar maria. The informant’s dad seemed to have strong beliefs in the cosmos, always turning to the man on the moon during dark times. This belief might have been passed down through his family, stemming from traditional beliefs present prior to Christianity. Solar cosmology was highly prevalent all around the world, and many people still follow these beliefs. The informant keeps this myth alive now in honor of her dad, so she will always be reminded of him by just looking up to the night sky. 

Book of Job – Didactic Tale/ Moral Lesson/Oral tale

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Language: English

The person who I met with grew up in a religious family. They grew up in a Christian household with parents who are avid bible readers and church goers. That in turn lead to their parents using a lot of biblical references in conversation, including references to the Book of Job.

The book of Job in the bible details the life of Job, a proud servant of God who had everything we could have wanted because of his strong faith in God who has blessed him because of this faith. However, Lucifer (the Devil) challenged God to test Job, proclaiming that his faith wouldn’t be so strong if bad things started happening to him. God, believing in Job’s faith in him, accepted this challenge and allowed Lucifer to test Job. Job then ensured many hardships including his family dying, losing his wealth, and his health. However, Job’s faith did not waiver. He stayed true to God no matter what happened to him.

This book of the bible was crucial to my informants upbringing. It’s a story about having faith in the lord no matter what happens in your life. The message is that anything bad happening to you is all part of God’s plan and you should always stay faithful to Him. The bad times will pass and the good times will come. It’s a message to stay positive when things aren’t going your way and to push forward but put into a religious context. Why is this message presented to my informant this way? It’s because they grew up in a very religious household so that’s how it was framed. I’m sure their parents could have found comfort in the idea that it’s all part of God’s plan but the message stays the same no matter what the context is. As to why their family is religious, I think it has something to do with their ethnicity as a someone who’s grandparents immigrated to the US from Mexico. Christianity is the dominant religion in Mexico with a majority of those Christians being very devout like my informants family are. I think they brought their faith over with them and brought their kids up with the same beliefs and so on. Being devout Christians, it makes sense that they would transcribe this positive message to their children in a religious context through their telling of the Book of Job.

Chinese New Year – Folk Origin Myth

Nationality: Chinese and American
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA

Context:

My informant is from China. In China they celebrate Chinese New Year, otherwise known as Lunar New Year, which is the most important traditional holiday in their culture. Lunar New Year, marking the start of the lunar calendar year, is said to symbolize a fresh start and the opportunity to leave bad luck behind and welcome what the new year has to offer. The lunar calendar follows the moon’s monthly cycles and is about 354 days, making a leap month necessary to stay in line with the seasons. Lunar New Year is widely celebrated in many other East and Southeast Asian countries. Its significance lies in the blending of ancient traditions with modern day practices.

Conversation pulled from audio:
Informant:

“This is like a Chinese New Year’s story, basically. Like why you have to put like you have to have fireworks and like you have to put up like red stuff or wear red on Chinese New Year’s. It’s because like basically there was like a town in the past that was like always like attacked by like I was like tormented, I guess, whatever, like by a monster that lived in the mountains and it would come down once a year to like eat people. And basically like they realized that like by setting bamboo on fire, it causes like a bang, like a really like loud popping and like banging sound. And like the monster would be like scared of the sound. And then they also realized that like the monster was like scared of red because it’s like really it’s like looks like fire, right? And then so, but this is really out of order, but you guys can Polish it.

{ 1:01 }
And so like they did these things and then the monster would like stay away. And like when it did come down, it would like run away. So yeah.

Me: { 1:10 }
The red scared it off?

Informant: { 1:14 }
The red and then the firecrackers because it’s like when you set the bamboo on fire, it like kind of sounds like a firecracker.

Me: { 1:19 }
A ritual. Gotcha. I like that. That’s awesome. Thank you so much.”

Analysis:

Is this story true? Who knows. That’s what makes it a folk myth. Does it even matter if it’s true? I don’t think so. I find it interesting nonetheless. The fact that my informant was told this story as a child as the origin of Chinese New Year is all that matters. That’s what makes it folklore because this story has been pasted down by the folk, true or not.

What I find interesting is it’s explanations for why people wear red and light firecrackers during this holiday. The monster, symbolic or not, is scared away by the color red and the lighting of firecrackers because it’s scared of fire. Is this symbolic? I think so. I think it could represent bad luck, chaos, hardship, or winter and with the new year you celebrate to ward these things off. Often in folklore monsters are used to represent natural or social fears. This monster could also represent the warding off of doubts about the new year and struggles like famine and fear of invasion from the closing year.

Stories from the Myth, the Bhagavad Gita

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Schnectady, New York
Language: English

Context: A myth that he grew up with is the Bhagavad Gita. Hearing this as a bedtime story when he was younger, to it being retold and dramatized as a tv series, the Bhagavad Gita is an epic retelling of a war called the Mahabharata between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Told by the lord Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, a key part of the myth is when Arjun, one of the Pandavas, had to take arms up against his own teacher and his cousins, that he grew up with, fondly reminiscing the past. Being in this position, he did not want to do this, so he went to Krishna, asking for answers to questions. He told Krishna his predicament and Krishna said he doesn’t have the answers and rather it lies in his dharma. Dharma, essentially is the concept that you are born with adult in life. He told Arjun not to worry about the outcome, rather carry out his duty which will lead to outcome, whether he likes it or not.

Interpretation: Honestly, the myth of the Bhagavad Gita is interesting, as part of it is tales and parts of it isn’t providing mixture of truths and possible dramatized parts with multiple meanings. The myth, however is an essential part of the identity of India and most religious individuals within India, and those who believe in Hinduism, almost part of their lifeline. This fight between good and evil tells a non-literal truth, as does that of Adam and Eve. Here, the story with a teacher provides interesting insight of a third party as an intervention/middle-man as with Adam and Eve the third party, the serpent, cause a series of events to occur so an interesting dynamic is created that is neutral rather than one-sided.

The Scaley Mocus

Age: 20

Story: When I was a little kid—maybe four or five—my mom used to freak me out with this made-up monster called the Scaley Mocus. One night I was playing outside after dark and she just yelled from the porch, “You better come in or the Scaley Mocus is gonna get you!” I had no clue what a Mocus even was, but it sounded disgusting. Like, slimy and creepy and hiding just out of sight. It was super easy to be inside after that…there was no chance that you would have caught me outside once the street lights turned on.

But my parents also used the Mocus for things other than being inside before dark. It was their go-to excuse for anything off-limits. If I ever tried to touch a dead bug or if I was misbehaving at dinner, my dad would just go, “Scaley Mocus is gonna love that!” and that was it, I was done. They basically used this invisible monster as a parenting tool, and it worked.

I never actually saw it, of course, but my brain created images of it all the time. In my mind, it was like this slimy, see-through jellyfish-like creature with creepy fingers and a wet slapping sound wherever it went. I thought it lived under beds or in the closet, just chilling, waiting for me to stay outside too late, or waiting for my parents to give it the “Okay” to come and get me.

Now that I’m older, the Scaley Mocus no longer scares me, but sometimes my parents will bring it up just to see my reaction. I find it funny now that they used this to scare me and my siblings, and to be honest, I can’t wait to use this with my kids when I’m older.

Analysis: This story told by my friend about the “Scaley Mocus” offers a fascinating example of how personal or family-invented legends function similarly to broader folk narratives. Even though the Scaley Mocus isn’t a widely recognized creature, it served a traditional folkloric purpose: instilling behavioral norms in children through fear and storytelling. Similar to creatures like the Boogeyman or the Jersey Devil, the Scaley Mocus was used as a parenting tool to maintain boundaries, enforce rules, and explain the unknown in a way that resonated emotionally with a child’s imagination.

What’s particularly interesting is how this story highlights the organic creation of folklore within a family unit. It wasn’t part of a communal oral tradition, but it still carried the facets of folklore. It also demonstrates how folklore is dynamic and adaptable, as this invented legend took on multiple roles (bedtime threat, dinner table enforcer, etc.) depending on what the situation called for. Now, as my friend reflects on it with humor and nostalgia, the Scaley Mocus continues to live on in memory and could even be passed down to the next generation—just like more traditional legends.