According to an ancient legend, during a very hot period the big snowy mountain lost her covering of snow and, with it, all her cheerfulness. Streams dried up, trees withered and the mountain became covered in grim grey rock. The moon, who was always bright and shining, wanted to help her friend. However, she was very kind but not very clever and the only thing that occurred to her was to make a hole in her lower part and blow through it softly. In this way, a small amount of the magic dust that made her shine would fall on the mountain in the form of light snow.

Once opened, nobody could seal the hole again. The moon didn’t mind, however. She continued to blow and after several nights lost all her white dust. Without it, the moon looked so empty that she was almost invisible and the nights became completely dark and sad. Upset by this, the mountain wanted to give the snow back to her friend. However, because it was impossible to make it snow upwards, she lit a fire inside herself until she became a volcano. The fire turned the snow into a dense white smoke that rose up as high as the moon, filling her gradually each night until she was once again full and bright. However, when the snow stopped, and with it the smoke, the hole in the moon remained open, and she had no choice but to share her magic again until she was hollow once more.

The moon set off on her travels in the hope of finding another mountain who could turn into a volcano, and she came across a town that needed her help desperately. She was too weak to stop her kind heart so she blew on the town, filling it with happiness until she herself stopped shining. It seemed as if the moon would never shine again but, just like the mountain, the grateful town also found a way to make it snow upwards. So did the next one, and the next, and every one after that.

And so, every month, the moon generously sprinkles her magic dust across the world until she disappears, knowing that in a few days her friends would find a way to make her shine brightly again.

Translated by Dominic Bentley, Manchester Metropolitan University