In which a story for the gift-giving season seems appropriate

 The Seven Stars of the North (Korea)

Once there was an old woman who had seven most filial sons. 

Every year the sons would cut wood in the mountains to warm their mother’s home in winter. 

Every year the sons would raise up a pig to fill their mother’s larder with meat. 

Every year the sons would barter goods to bring their mother warm blankets so that she would sleep comfortably.

Yet, whenever they met their mother in the village, she always seemed cold, and hungry, and tired.  But always she smiled at them happily, and she did not complain.

One night the eldest son went to the home of his mother, but she was not at home. 

He hid behind a tree and waited anxiously for her to return.  Just before dawn, she came home, shivering in the cold.

“Our mother goes out at night,” the eldest told his brothers.  “I think that is the reason she is always so cold.”

The brothers agreed to hide near the house of their mother, and to follow and watch what she did.

When the mother went out next evening, she was carrying a great bundle of wood and food and blankets on her back. 

The brothers followed secretly as the mother walked the narrow path out of the village. 

They saw her shiver as she girded up her skirts and waded across a cold stream. 

Finally, she came to a poor thatched cottage in the forest and called out, “Friend, are you at home?”

An ancient woman came out of the cottage, saying “Come in, come in.”  This woman was very poor.  She had no children and earned a living by weaving straw sandals.

The sons now understood their mother’s heart.  They hurried back through the forest together, and as they went, they gathered large rocks and stones. 

They took these rocks and made stepping stones through the cold stream.

Then, they went back home and slept as if nothing had happened.

When their mother came to the stream on her way home, she was very surprised to see the stepping stones which had not been there before. 

Of course, she did not know that her sons had put them there, but she was deeply grateful and prayed to Heaven, “May those who put these stepping stones in the stream become stars up in the sky.

So it was that when each of the seven filial sons died, they were set in the sky, just as their mother had prayed. 

They formed a constellation in the north of the heavens, and they are still there to this day.

Readers are welcome to forward the link to this page, copy/paste the text, re-tell this story over the campfire or the watercooler, and otherwise help it move out into the world.  Please remember that it came to you from Haiku Farm, with love.