Rona was the daughter of the sea god Tangaroa. She was the Tide Controller. One night she was carrying a bucket with stream water back home to her children, when the path became dark. The Moon slipped behind the clouds making it impossible to see anything. As Rona was walking, she hit her foot against a root that was sticking out of the ground. She was so upset that she couldn't see the root, she made some unkind remarks about the Moon.
The Moon heard her remarks and put a serious curse on the Maori people. The Moon took offense and grabbed Rona and her water bucket. Many people today see a woman with a bucket in the Moon. It is said that when Rona upsets her bucket, it rains. This Maori story symbolizes the influence of the Moon on the rain and on the waters of the Earth, and especially on the tides.
In a different Maori myth, Rona is male. He travels around looking for his wife, and eventually ends up on the Moon. To this day, the two take turns eating each other. This is how the phases of the Moon were explained. Both would replenish themselves in the live waters of Tane. They began their battle once again.
Anningan is the name of the Moon god of some Inuit tribes that live in Greenland. The Inuit are inhabitants of Alaska, Greenland and the Arctic. The word Inuit means "people." Its singular form is Inuk. The Athapascan speaking tribes of Alaska and Canada used to address the Inuit people with the offensive term of "Eskimo" which means "eaters of raw meat."
The Inuit people believe that once Anningan raped his sister, the Sun goddess Malina, and that he stubbornly continues to chase her in the sky. That is why the Sun and the Moon appear at different times in the sky. Anningan is so tenacious in his eternal pursuit of his sister that he neglects to eat. He becomes more and more thin until he is forced to come down to Earth and hunt for food. To satisfy his hunger, the Moon disappears from the sky for three days each month.
The Inuit believe that the Moon and the Sun hate each other and all members of the opposite sex. Occasionally, the moon-god reaches the sun-goddess and rapes her again, causing a solar eclipse. During a solar eclipse, men are supposed to remain at home if they do not want to become ill. Diseases are sent by Malina and Anningan upon those who offend them. Thus, during a lunar eclipse, women do not leave their homes.
Moreover, when a man dies or a girl is born, the Inuit believe there is a ring around the Moon which expresses the grief of the moon god, Anningan. The sun goddess expresses happiness for the same events, appearing twice in parhelion. Parhelion is an illusion of two or more suns, caused by certain atmospheric conditions.
Tsuki-Yomi was the Moon god according the oldest Japanese religion, Shinto, which means "the way of the gods." Tsuki-Yomi was born from the right eye of the primeval being Izanagi. His sister, the Sun goddess Amaterasu, was born from the left eye of Izanagi, and from the nose the storm god Susanowo.
Tsuki-Yomi initially lived in the Heavens with his sister. But once, Amaterasu sent her brother as her representative to the goddess of food, Uke Mochi. To celebrate, the goddess of food offered him a wonderful meal, created from her mouth and nose. Tsuki-Yomi was so disgusted that he killed Uke Mochi.
When Amaterasu learned of her brother's misdeed, she was so angry that she did not want to see him anymore. Since then, brother and sister have lived apart, alternating in the sky. That is why the day always follows the night.
