Why the Moonlight isn’t Warm

A long time ago, there was no moon at all in the sky, nor were there any shiny stars. Only a sun. And once the sun dropped behind the horizon in the evening, there was utter darkness. But one night, a bright object appeared in the sky, much to everybody’s amazement. However, the object was not the moon as we know it today, because that early moon was red-hot. Its radiant heat was destroying trees and crops, and often made people faint.

“We can’t just let this happen!” someone shouted from the crowd. The people were disturbed by this new presence. They wanted to get rid of the burning hot moon but couldn’t figure out how to do that.

Meanwhile, in a small village situated at the foot of Ham Lon Mountain in Vietnam, there lived an experienced hunter named An and his wife Ninh, a skilled weaver.

They too wanted to solve this massive overheating problem. One day something occurred to Ninh: “An, you are by far the best archer in the world. How about if you try to shoot down the moon with your arrows? Then we would finally have a break from the heat,” she said, thinking aloud.

“It’s worth a try!” An answered.

So he grabbed his bow and a full quiver of arrows and made his way to the top of Ham Lon Mountain. Once there, he took aim and shot the first arrow. But the arrow didn’t even make it halfway to the moon. An didn’t give up, though. He took out another arrow and shot again. But he didn’t hit his target the second time either. Continuing in this way, An gradually shot one hundred arrows. The moon seemed to be mocking him, though, as it boldly continued burning…