One tradition sees a figure of a man carrying a wide burden on his back. In the folklore of the New Forest in Southern England he was believed to have been thrown there by the giant forest guardian Yernagate, for hoarding all the wood of the forest floor. The trio has become the personifications of the Mid-Autumn Festival, when they descend to the mortal world and give out cellophane lanterns, mooncakes and gifts to children. There, he eternally accompanied the Moon Lady and the Jade Rabbit. One day, when his wife ignorantly watered the tree with unclean water and caused it to uproot itself to fly away, Cuội grabbed its roots and was taken to the Moon. He was originally a woodcutter on Earth who owned a magical banyan.

In Vietnamese mythology, the Man in the Moon is named Cuội. This is especially explored in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. In Japanese mythology, it is said that a tribe of human-like spiritual beings live on the Moon. As punishment for his disrespect, the boy was taken from Earth and trapped on the Moon. Not wanting to gather sticks, the boy complained and ridiculed the Moon. The boy's father had told him the Moon's light would brighten the night, allowing the chore to be completed. In Haida mythology, the figure represents a boy gathering sticks. Another mythology tells the story of Wu Gang, a man on the moon who is trying to cut down a tree that always regrows. In some versions of the myth, she is accompanied by Yu Tu, a Moon rabbit. In Chinese mythology, the goddess Chang'e is stranded upon the Moon after foolishly consuming a double dose of an immortality potion.

He is continually pursued by the Great Wolf Hati who catches him at Ragnarök. In Norse mythology, Máni is the male personification of the Moon who crosses the sky in a horse-drawn carriage. John Lyly says in the prologue to his Endymion (1591), 'There liveth none under the sunne, that knows what to make of the man in the moone.'

There is also a Mediaeval Jewish tradition that the image of Jacob is engraved on the Moon. Give rise to talk of Cain in fabling quaint? But tell, I pray thee, whence the gloomy spots

Man on the moon history