Year of the Rabbit: A look into 2023 (2)

Illustration: Kou Jie/People's Daily Online

2023: Jade rabbit, the moon and the Spring Festival

It's 2023, and the year of the rabbit is here. For millennia, the Chinese have associated rabbits, a symbol of purity and harmony in their mythology and folklore, with a yearning to travel to the stars.

China's lunar rover, the first to ever land on the far side of the moon, was named Yutu (Jade Rabbit) in 2018 after the country launched a worldwide poll to find a suitable name. According to Xinhua, 42,945 proposed names were submitted within a month, and Yutu was chosen due to its representation of kindness, purity and the reflection of China's peaceful use of space.

Throughout Chinese mythology, the rabbit is frequently shown as a close friend of the Moon goddess Chang'e, who entrusted the Jade Rabbit with creating the elixir of immortality in her moon palace with the help of a pestle and mortar.

Yutu has inspired generations of Chinese scientists to explore the secrets of its lunar hideout, and in 2022, China completed construction of its space station. Perhaps, in the foreseeable future, people will fly to the moon and pay the Jade Rabbit a visit.