Man in the Moon Man in the Moon The Man in the Moon refers to any of several pareidolic images of a human face, head or body that certain traditions recognize in the disc of the full moon. The images are composed of the dark areas of the lunar "maria", or "seas" and the lighter highlands of the lunar surface. There are various explanations for how the Man in the Moon came to be. A longstanding European tradition holds that the man was banished to the Moon for some crime. Christian lore commonly held that he is the man caught gathering sticks on the
The Moon is made of green cheese cheese" in this proverb simply refers to a young cheese (sometimes "cream cheese" is used), though modern people may interpret the color reference literally. There was never an actual historical popular belief that the Moon is made of green cheese ("cf.", Flat Earth and the myth of the Flat Earth). It was typically used as an example of extreme credulity, a meaning that was clear and commonly understood as early as 1638. There exists a family of stories in comparative mythology in diverse countries that concern a simpleton who sees a reflection of the Moon and mistakes it for a