Have you ever slipped out late at night to meet the love of your life? It’s a warm summer’s evening so you end up sitting on a rock together, so much in love that words are not needed. You look up at the stars and the moonlight is reflected in your eyes. Just then your little brother throws a bucket of water over you and you are both sopping wet! The perfect romantic moment… ruined! As you wave goodbye you look up at the full moon and you imagine you see a face laughing at you.

The moon has always fascinated us. All through the month, the moon is changing shape and its position in the sky. It starts off as a thin crescent shape and slowly grows until it is a big round ball in the night sky. This full moon is not one colour but has light and dark shadows formed by the craters and mountains on the moon’s surface.

It is common for humans to look at these patterns and think we see an image. At first we see something very familiar, such as a face, but after that our imaginations run wild as the brain tries to make sense of what the eyes are looking at. In different parts of the world people imagine different shapes on the moon’s surface: a rabbit, a woman, a pair of hands and even a dragon.

One of the loveliest stories around the moon in Africa, is the one about a young prince who lived in his father’s mountain kingdom.

One morning, long before the sun had risen, he was riding his horse past a clearing in the forest. In the silvery moonlight he caught sight of a beautiful girl sitting next to a water well. She was wearing a white dress sprinkled with stars. His heart skipped a beat and he knew she was the one he wanted to marry. Before he could talk to her she disappeared. Frog lived next to the well and was up early catching flies for breakfast.

“Who was that girl?” the prince asked.

Frog explained: “That is the Sky Maiden. She is the daughter of the Sun Chief who controls everything that happens in the sky. His palace is in the sun, and his daughter lives in the moon.”

The prince thanked Frog and rode away. He had fallen in love at first sight with the Sky Maiden and wanted to propose to her. He didn’t know how to get his proposal letter to her so he asked all the animals to help him. None of them knew how.

But Frog had an idea and offered to help the prince. When the serving girls of the Sun Chief came down from the sky to get water from the well, Frog jumped into their bucket and delivered the letter to the Chief. The prince’s offer of marriage was accepted but now Frog had to take the lobola to the Sun Chief. When the Sky Maiden met Frog, she was so impressed with all that he had done to help someone else find happiness. She fell in love with the kindly frog and married him instead. Together they went back to the moon and lived happily ever after.

If you go out on a clear night when the moon is full, look carefully and you will see the shapes of a frog and a woman in the moon’s shadows. If you know where to look, that is. And I am still looking!!