In the folklore of the Eastern Caribbean island of St Lucia there is a popular character known as Ti Jean. He is a folk hero and his story is known in the island’s mythology. Part of the lore is the widespread belief that the configurations visible on the face of the full moon are pictures that take the shape of a man with a bundle of wood on his head and a little dog following behind him. It is said that Ti Jean is that famous ‘man in the moon’ and there is a story about how he got there.
He was a young boy who had to fight against the Devil, but despite his youth, size and impoverishment, he used his wits and cunning as well as the elements of surprise and daring, to defeat his powerful and intimidating foe. As a reward for that achievement, God elevated him and put him in the moon as a guide to the world. That is known as a myth of origin – a story used in folk belief to explain the existence of things encountered in the universe. In this case it explains how the man came to be in the moon.
