Read the legend Zummy loves
Vitoria-Regia: The Legend of the Moon Flower
A girl so drawn to the moon’s reflection on the water that she becomes something magical herself: the beautiful Amazonian legend of Vitoria-Regia, the giant water lily that still blooms by moonlight.
Long ago, in a village beside the great Amazon River, there lived a young girl named Naia. She was loved by everyone around her, but more than anything, she was captivated each night by Jaci, the moon, and the way his silver light danced and shimmered across the surface of the river.
According to the old stories told in her village, Jaci sometimes chose the most devoted young women who gazed up at him and turned them into stars, so they could stay near him forever in the night sky. Naia began to dream that she, too, might be chosen, and every evening she climbed to the highest hill near her village, just to watch him rise and hope that he might notice her at last.
Chasing the Moon on the Water
One quiet night, Naia wandered along the edge of a still forest lake, and there, glowing on the calm surface of the water, was Jaci’s reflection, so bright and so close that it seemed she could almost reach out and touch him. Certain that this was finally her chance, she stepped toward the water’s edge, reaching for the silvery light with both hands.
A Gentle Transformation
Jaci had been watching her from high above all along, and he saw in Naia a devotion so deep and so pure that he could not let the moment pass unanswered. He did not turn her into a star, as she had once dreamed, but into something even more wondrous: right there at the water’s edge, Naia became a flower unlike any that had ever grown before, one that would belong to both the water and the moonlight forever.
From that night on, an enormous flower began to bloom across the still lakes and rivers of the Amazon, its great round leaves spreading like green platters across the water, and its blossoms opening only after sunset, glowing white and gold beneath the moonlight, exactly as Naia once had, reaching upward toward Jaci every single night.
To this day, the flower is called Vitoria-Regia, and it still grows across the rivers of the Amazon, closing its petals at dawn and opening them again each night, forever reaching for the gentle silver light of the moon that Naia loved so much.
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Nana Nenem
Play this softly while you read: a traditional Brazilian lullaby, from the same land this legend calls home.
More stories, more lullabies
This is one tale in a growing collection of traditional stories from around the world, each one paired, where we can, with a real lullaby from the same culture.