Cultural Connotations in Looking at the Harvest Moon

Tonight, many people will be marvelling at the perfect full moon over the Japanese sky. 

🌝 September's full moon has been cherished for centuries as an aesthetic object for public (nowadays family) viewing in Japan. 

🍡 I am all ready for it with hand-made rice dumplings and silver grass that traditionally go with this festival. Hopefully, the moon will show its shiny face tonight. 

 🐇 What will you see on the lunar surface then? Here in Germany, people associate the dark splotches of the moon with “the man in the moon” while the Japanese see in it a rabbit holding a pestle and mortar for making rice cakes. 

 ♪ Here are lyrics of a famous children’s song for moon viewing: 

“Rabbit”
Dear rabbit, hopping rabbit
What are you looking at while hopping around?
The harvest moon is
what I’m gazing at
(Free translation) 

Written in a minor key, the song sounds quite melancholic and thus, fitting to the feel of autumn. In Europe among other places, bunnies are symbols of fertility and a joyous figure at the Easter. 

The planet is universal but our culture-laden imagination is not.  Translators and interpreters need a good antenna for catching all connotations that come with the different languages. 

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