Legend says that these fire dogs originated from the kingdom of darkness. Its Korean term is Gamangnara (가망나라). The folklore tells that bulgae are the reason behind the moon’s eclipses. In the legend, the Ganamngnara’s king had so many concerns over the kingdom’s darkness, so he sent out these fire dogs to capture the moon and the sun.

Sadly, each moon and sun proved to be too hot or too cold for these dogs to handle. Thus, they would burn or freeze when they tried to carry them over to the kingdom. The king, however, would not give up and kept sending more dogs to retrieve these things. And therefore, a lunar or a solar eclipse occurs each time a dog tries to retrieve the moon or the sun for its master.

Mongolia 
Namjil and the Morin Khuur

This is the tale behind one of Mongolia’s most beautiful and well-loved musical instruments, the Morin Khuur.

The legend follows a young horse herder who went into the Mongolian army. There, they found that he sang so beautifully that they named him Namjil the Cuckoo, and ensured that his only duty was to make music to soothe their spirits.

But after a while, Namjil missed the horses he’d grown up with, and asked his commander if he could take care of the troops’ horses. He was permitted to, and Namjil joyously roamed the nearby Steppe with the horses in his care.

One day, a beautiful young woman appeared suddenly before him and asked him to play for her and her family. He quickly agreed, enchanted by her, and went to play for them. The pair fell in love and spent happy days together making music and roaming the steppes. But eventually, Namjil had to return to his home (and his wife).

His love gifted him with a flying horse so that he could return to her every night. All he needed to do, she said, was to always stop a little before his village and walk the horse the rest of the way, so that it had time to tuck back its wings.

So for a long time, this arrangement worked – but his wife grew jealous and confused, because her husband kept disappearing every night. Then one day, Namjil was in a hurry, and flew his horse right into the village, rushing into his yurt. His young wife saw what happened, and in a jealous rage ran out and cut the wings off the horse. It bled out and died that same day.

Devastated at losing both his wonderful horse and his distant beloved, Namjil made the first Morin Khuur from the horse’s hairs, skin and bone, and carved its regal face into the headpiece. And with it he played many mournful tunes, lamenting the loss of love.

Music played on the Morin Khuur
 

静夜思 (“Thoughts in the Silent Night”) 

床前明月光，

疑是地上霜。

举头望明月，

低头思故乡。

Translation

Moonlight reflects off the front of my bed.

Could it actually be the frost on the ground?

I look up to view the bright moon,

And look down to reminisce about my hometown.

This popular Chinese poem was penned by one of the most famous Tang dynasty poets of all time – Li Bai (701-762). The poem expresses the poet’s loneliness, pensiveness, and homesickness as he gazes up at the bright moon.

Each part of the Mongolian flag has a unique meaning the blue stripe in the middle of the flag symbolizes the eternal blue sky. The red stripes to its left and right symbolize eternal prosperity. The golden symbol in the red stripe to the left is the ‘soyombo’. It represents the Sun and the Moon, fire, earth, and water, and yin and yang

Macau got its name from a misunderstanding.

The name ‘Macau’ is thought to have been coined through a misunderstanding by Portuguese seafarers when they first arrived on the island. They asked the locals for the name of the land, but the locals misunderstood, and answered with ‘A-Ma-Gau’, thinking that the Portuguese were asking for the name of the local temple called A-Ma. From there, the Portuguese took ‘A-Ma-Gau’ and the territory officially became known as Macau.