Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival is a seasonal festival celebrated by most of the Chinese people. The festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Lunar calendar, on the night of the full moon between early September to early October. This year the mid-autumn festival falls on 27-9-2015, which is tomorrow.

Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Moon Festival, because its legends are usually related to the moon.

1)     Chang E flied to the Moon

The story of Chang E flying to the moon is one of the most common anecdotes among the Chinese. It is said that in ancient times, ten suns existed and the extreme heat made people live in disaster. It was the hero Hou Yi, who was excellent at archery (legends said that he is handsome and robust too), shot down nine of the ten suns. On hearing of this magnificent feat and the hero who performed it, people came from far and wide to learn from him. Peng Meng was among these people. Later, Hou Yi married a beautiful and kind-hearted woman named Chang E and lived a happy ever after life and the story ended at here.

‘If happy ever after did exist’-Maroon 5

 Nope, it was just the beginning of the tale. One day, Hou Yi came upon Wang Mu Niang Niang (the queen of heaven) on the way to meet his old friend. Wang Mu Niang Niang presented him an elixir which, if took, would cause him to ascend immediately to heaven and become a god. Hou Yi did not want to leave Chang E and be immortal without her, so he let Chang E keep the elixir. Unfortunately, Peng Meng secretly saw Hou Yi give the potion to his wife and three days later, while Hou Yi was out hunting, Peng Meng rushed into the backyard and demanded that Chang E hand over the elixir (remember it is not safe to leave your wife alone at home). Knowing that she could not win, she took out the elixir and swallowed it immediately (not sure that it is sweet or bitter). The moment she drank it, she flew out of the window and up into the sky. Chang E's great love for her husband drew her towards the Moon, which is the nearest place to the earth on the heaven. When Hou Yi came back and learned what had happened, he felt so sad that he displayed the fruits and cakes Chang E liked in the yard and gave sacrifices to his wife. People soon learned about these activities, and since they also were sympathetic to Chang E they participated in these sacrifices with Hou Yi to pray for peace and prosperity. Since then, the custom of sacrificing to the moon has been spread among the folklore.

 

Hou Yi shooting down 9 suns.

Chang E flying to the Moon

2)     Jade Rabbit 

     The story goes about that three immortals reincarnated themselves into three poor old people and begged food from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and monkey both gave food to the immortals. However, the rabbit did not have any food. It then said to the immortals: “you can eat me” and jumped into the fire. The immortals were so touched by the rabbit and sent it to the moon to become an immortal jade rabbit. Ever since, the jade rabbit stayed in the Moon Palace to accompany Chang E and pounded immortal medicine for those living in the heaven. Let's cross our finger that Chang E would not eat the jade rabbit.

Image of the jade rabbit

 

Moon cakes with tea.

3)     Moon Cake Uprising
In late Yuan Dynasty , people in many parts of the country could not bear the cruel rule of the government and rose in revolt. Zhu Yuan Zhang, founder of Ming Dynasty, wanted to unite the different resistance forces and wanted to organize an uprising. However, this is very difficult due to the narrow search by government and there are no Messenger and Whatsapp during that time. Unity among the citizen is almost impossible. The counselor Liu Bowen later thought out the great idea of hiding notes with “uprise on the night of August 15th” in moon cakes and had them sent to different resistance forces. The uprising turned to be very successful and Zhu was so happy that he awarded his subjects with moon cakes on the following Mid-Autumn Festival. Since then, eating moon cakes and trading of moon cakes has been a custom on Mid-Autumn Festival.

Traditional paper tanglung. One of the icon of Mid-Autumn Festival.

Today, mid-autumn festival is celebrated by having gathering and praying. Since, during that time the moon is round, moon cakes are round, the lanterns are round too and in Chinese, round is Yuan, which is the symbol of Reunion. Hence, the theme of mid-autumn festival is always the reunion of family members.

Ps. Hope that the sky will be clear tomorrow so that we can enjoy the full moon. 
(It is kind of hazy right now) 

 但願人長久, 千里共嬋娟

This is an oldies about the moon represent my heart (literally translate from Chinese). Very popular among the old generation and famous singer is Teresa Teng.
Attached is the video of the song with English translation of the song.
ENJOY