As a child, my mother told me the story of the rabbit in the moon. This story is so ingrained in me that it took until my mid 20’s to see the man in the moon - I always saw the rabbit. I have searched for a more wide spread reference of this story but concluded is an old folk tale passed down through my Native American ancestry and is unique to my Colorado roots.

The story goes-

One night, coyote was hunting for dinner and caught the sent of a rabbit. Just alike, rabbit caught the sent of coyote and sensed danger. Coyote was hungry and started tracking down the rabbit in the dark of night and could see well thanks to the full moon that shown so bright. At this time, the moon was just a bright orb in the sky with no craters and rabbit had always looked at the moon, thinking - “what if I could go through that hole in the sky?” As rabbits burrow and find their way to the surface by using the light at a burrow’s entrance.

Coyote was gaining on rabbit and rabbit was so scared to become coyote’s dinner. In hopes of escaping coyote, Rabbit decided to try and jump through the big, bright hole in the dark starry night sky. Rabbit ran so fast to jump high enough, launching into the night sky. Rabbit was successful and escaped from coyote, but instead of jumping through a big hole in the sky, Rabbit landed on the moon! Now every night, coyote howls at the moon, hungry for a dinner that was able to get away.

This story has been with me almost my entire life and I decided to use it to create the image for my April 2025 Woodland Critter class. In hopes that this class will continue for years to come, the Woodland Critter printmaking Art Class creates a new critter each month. As published on Eventbrite, Mar/Apr have the bunny as the critter of choice due to the Easter Holiday and celebration of the spring season of fertility. I wanted to weave another story into the season, and share a lesser know, very regional, and dear to my heart connection to the woodland critter: the bunny, rabbit, hare, etc. Thanks for reading and join my Woodland Critter Art Class (CLICK HERE) for more magical adventures!