What is the purpose or meaning of the crescent moon found on an "outhouse" door?

JoshCaleb12

Level with me: you've never actually seen an outhouse with a half-moon cut into the door, have you? Neither have I, despite several decades of camping trips. I'll bet the same goes for just about everybody else. The idea that outhouses always have moons on them has been perpetuated largely by several generations of cartoonists (e.g., Al Capp), probably none of whom ever saw one either. The only reference I can find to the practice is in Eric Sloane's The Little Red Schoolhouse: A Sketchbook of Early American Education. Discussing 18th- and 19th-century schoolhouses, Eric writes: "The woodshed was often a lean-to attached to the schoolhouse, but the most accepted arrangement was to place it between the schoolhouse and the privy, with a fence separating the boys' entrance from the girls'. The ancient designation of privy doors was to saw into them a sun (for boys' toilet) and a moon (for girls' toilet)." Eric has supplied a sketch of both versions, showing the familiar crescent moon for the girls and a radiant sun for the boys. By way of corroboration, I note here in my manual of semiotics that the moon "is usually represented as the feminine power, the Mother Goddess, Queen of Heaven, with the sun as the masculine." Isn't that just great? All this time you thought you were in there just doing your business and now it turns out you were participating in a pagan ritual. Why cartoonists picked up on the moon rather than the sun as the universal symbol for outhouse is hard to say. But knowing cartoonists I'd guess it has something to do with the fact that the radiant sun is hell to draw. The reason there's a hole in the first place is a lot simpler: it provides ventilation. http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_382.html Oct 05 05, 1:12 PM

my_baby_love

Air freshner, the meaning I don't know. Oct 05 05, 1:12 PM

my_baby_love

I have actually seen outhouses with the cresent moon shaped hole on their doors, but this is probably just a recent copy of the cartoon outhouses. Oct 05 05, 1:17 PM

daddy1161992

The cresant moon for girls, and the sun or star for boys, precedes the comic strip. By the 19th century the meaning was lost, and many only had the moon. The design(s) was carved high on the door for privacy, and to provide light and ventilation. A friend prompted this research, and said he had seen modern "port'a'potties" with cresant moon decals on the door.(Going back as little as 20 years ,I have seen outhouses that were "new construction", and my "x" who is a visiting nurse, had client's who had to go to the stream to get water, and heat it on the stove, so she could wash her hands. www.jldr.com/ohindex.shtml Oct 06 05, 6:16 PM