Why the sun and moon are in the sky

When we look up in the sky we see some amazing things, for me the two most amazing things I see are the sun and the moon. They are forever locked in a beautiful celestial dance, sometimes on opposite sides to one another and sometimes they meet, but they never actually really meet do they? They also never really meet the earth in any way - to us on the earth it looks like they do when they reach the horizon but they keep slipping past each other. In Nigeria they tell the tale of how the sun tried to meet the ocean and this is how it goes.

Long long ago, when the Sun, the Moon and the Ocean were still close friends, the Sun fell in love with the Ocean. The Sun desperately wanted to be close to the Ocean but whenever he came close to her, she would begin bubbling and boiling almost as if in anger.

For a very long time this went on until one day the Moon crossed paths with the Sun as he was in pursuit of the Ocean and because the Moon was between them, the Ocean did not boil and froth as much as when the Moon was not there. The Sun took ages to figure this pattern out but eventually he did and he timed it so that he could be close to the Ocean for the day.

As Moon crossed his path, he swooped down and caught the Ocean and the Moon all at once. Moon kept Ocean from boiling as she was between them. Now Sun and Ocean were devising a plan to meet each other again but poor Ocean was sad and said to Sun that they could only be together if Sun could build a meeting place where she and all of her creatures could fit. She was sad because she knew the extent of her family and it was huge. Still to this day, the Ocean is teeming with life.

Sun was taken aback and became glad for he knew just what to do. He promised Ocean that the next time they crossed paths he would have a meeting place large enough for all of Oceans life. Sun set to work building a massive boma, so big that all of his own animals and people as well as Moon’s animals and people could fit in it many times. Sun was pleased with his work and decided he was ready to host Ocean and all of her animals and people.

So when the time was right, Sun called to Ocean and bade her to flow into the boma with all her animals and people. Ocean did so, eager to be with Sun as he stood behind Moon. But Ocean was not sure and as the water and the animals came to Moon’s ankles, she stopped. She wanted to know if they were still happy and Sun was, so Ocean continued to flow into the boma. When she reached Moon’s shoulders, Sun had to climb up onto Moon’s head so as not to boil the water. Ocean asked if they were still happy and Sun replied he was.

Ocean kept flowing in and in and in with no end and the waters around Moon started to boil and burn as they got closer to Moon’s head and eventually Moon could take it no longer and jumped high out of the boma, high into the sky and took Sun with him. There they both became stuck and there to this day we still see them.