Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Reading Diary B: Khasi Folktales


For the second half of the Khasi Folktales unit it primarily contained stories that attempted to describe natural phenomena. During older times people would create myths to describe what they see around them; why thunder occurs, why the waterfalls are so loud, or how the dog came to be at the service of man. These three were exemplified in the stories within this unit amongst several others. The second half of the unit had several stories that really grabbed my attention. In particular I really liked What Caused the Shadows on the Moon. The story detailed the lives of a mother and her four children; Water, Fire, Moon, and Sun. Moon and Sun were equally beautiful and bright but Moon disregarded the advice of his mother. He did what he wanted and when he wanted. At one point he left home and did not return for a great deal of time (this explains why there are lunar eclipses). When he finally returned home he had forgotten that the Sun was his sister. He was so blown away by her beauty that he asked their mother for permission to marry her. The mother was so disgusted she sent the Moon away, once the Sun heard about this she burned the face of Moon out of anger. This is why the moon is so pale and has dark crevices according to the Khasi. In today’s society stories like this don’t hold up due to the scientific advances we have made. However, I personally love reading stories like this because it shows the thirst for knowledge the people of past generations had.

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