The outhouse, as we know it, originated in Europe more than 500 years ago, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The finer inns began offering "his" and "hers" outhouses. But, because most people were illiterate, symbols were used on the outhouses to show which was "his" and which was "hers". Pictures of the sun and moon were the obvious choice. From ancient times, the "sun" had been a symbol of all that was masculine and the "moon" of all that was feminine.

As time went by, innkeepers reasoned that maintaining a men's outhouse was unnecessary, because they could always go out in the woods--- and those who couldn't or wouldn't, could use the women's outhouse. Men's outhouses disappeared, leaving only women's outhouses, marked with the crescent moon.