The Toad and the Hare

In Japan, the hare is called Tsukoyomi ( Moon-counter or Moon-bow ), and is said to have killed Ukemochi the rice goddess [4]. (perhaps this represents the harvesting of rice with a sickle****). Tsukoyomi is often portrayed pounding rice in a pestle and mortar. The characters for "moon" and "pounding rice" are similar in Japanese. This may be a pun, or the connection between the moon, the hare and rice may have influenced the development of the written language*****. In many legends from around the world, crop plants are believed to have originated in the moon. The Machiguenga imagine, manioc, potatos and maize to be the daughters of the moon [5]

In Shanghai, on the 15th day of the 1st Lunar month, is the Yuanxiao lantern festival, in which lanterns, mostly in the shape of rabbits are carried through the streets.

The Mayans often pictured the moon goddess accompanied by a hare. For more on this subject, click here

In Europe hares are surrounded by a lot of strange folklore. At harvest time, the cutting of the last sheaf of corn was called cutting the hare. In some places the reapers would all stand around and throw their sickles at the "hare"[13]. In the light of this, the Irish story of The Liar is quite interesting

The (strangely androgenous) Saxon goddess of spring and the moon, Oestre, was portrayed with the head of a hare, or with a hood representing the ears of a hare (click here for a picture). The words "Easter" and "oestrus" are related to "Oestre". The hare was also said to lay an egg at Easter. This legend probably originates from the similarity between the lapwings nest (little more than a hollow in the grass) and a Hares form (resting place). ( Robert Graves had a lot to say about the Lapwing, but I'll leave it to him to say it). This is probably also the origin of the Easter bunny, although folklorists have been unable to find references to the Easter Bunny any earlier than "Scribners Illustrated Magazine for boys and girls" in 1909******[7]
Some experts say that the hare was sacred to the ancient Britons (Julius Caesar said as much in Gallic wars V 12), while others say that it was introduced by the Romans (As Charles Fort wrote: "For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"). Generally, these legends are taken to refer to the Brown Hare, and this is the variety which may have been introduced, but there is also a type of hare native to Ireland, and the Mountain Hare of Northern England and Scotland which changes from white to blue/grey with the seasons. Perhaps it was the mountain hare which was sacred

Osiris was sometimes called Wepuat or Un-nefer, and portrayed with the head of a hare (click here. for a picture ) See also The Stairway to heaven

The Tinner's guild of Devon and Cornwall carved their badge of three rabbits or hares (click here for picture) in a number of West Country churches. I suspect that this is mainly because miners and rabbits both dig tunnels, but the Tinners are linked to the Birmingham Lunar Society, through Rudolph Erich Raspe

According to the Encyclopaedia Britanica, the connection between the moon and the hare, originated in Ancient Egypt and resulted from the chance similarity between the words for "hare" and "period". I must disagree: The Egyptian word "un" did mean "hare" and "period", but I don't believe that this is coincidence*****. Rabbits and hares are also obviously excellent fertility symbols (frogs and toads are also highly fertile, as anyone who has collected frogspawn will know).[top]