If there was one thing that Ganesha loved to do it was to eat, and best of all he loved sweet things like fruits, cakes and puddings. One night after feasting on all his favourite foods Ganesha went out riding on his vehicle, the rat. The big round moon lit the countryside around them. All of a sudden, a large snake slithered across the path in front of the rat, frightening him so much that he stopped dead in his tracks sending Ganesha flying. As he hit the ground, Ganesha's enormous stomach burst open and all his supper came tumbling out on to the ground.

Ganesha picked himself up and, pulling the gaping hole in his stomach together, he seized the snake and tied it around his middle to hold his stomach fast. Then Ganesha heard laughter; but could see no one. So he looked up and there was Lord Chandra, the moon, laughing and laughing. Ganesha was furious. "How dare you laugh at me?" he shouted and, breaking off one of his tusks, he hurled it as hard as he could at the moon, cursing Lord Chandra as he did so and saying that all who looked at him would hear bad things about themselves.

The story goes that people shunned Lord Chandra, who felt so ashamed he hid himself in a lotus flower. Then there was no moonlight in the world and the gods begged Ganesha to lift the curse; Lord Chandra, too, begged for forgiveness. So Ganesha removed the curse but said that Chandra's insolence should always be remembered.

On certain days of the year, therefore, Hindus consider it to be unlucky to look at the moon, for anyone who does, will suffer the effects of Ganesha's curse. And having bad thoughts about oneself is perhaps the most difficult obstacle for anyone to overcome.

This information is taken from 'A Tapestry of Tales' by Sanda Palmer.