The Mid Autumn Festival is a traditional cultural festival popular in China and the Chinese areas of the world.
It is celebrated on the 15th Day of the eighth lunar month every year. Why call it Mid-autumn Festival? Because the 15th day is the middle of a month and the eighth lunar month is in the middle of autumn. It is believed that the moon is the brightness and roundest on this day. Mid-autumn Festival became an official celebration in China during the Tang Dynasty. But there isn’t one clear answer to the question of when and how the Mid-autumn Festival began. Many believe the festival was first mentioned in the “Book of Rites” written more than 2400 years ago. It was described as a day for emperors to celebrate the year’s harvest by giving offerings to the moon and hosting a great feast.
There are also many legends about the Mid-autumn Festival. The most popular one is about Chang’e and the jade rabbit. Hou Yi, the husband of Chang’e, was rewarded with an elixir of immortality by the Queen Mother, because he shot down nine of the ten suns and saved people from the heat. He didn’t swallow it straight away, because he didn’t want to gain immortality without his wife. So, he asked Chang’e to keep it for him. Unexpectedly, while Hou Yi was out hunting in one Mid-autumn day,an evil person tried to force Chang’e to hand over the elixir. In this crisis time, Chang’e swallowed the elixir and flew higher and higher to the moon. Hou Yi was very sad and made sacrifices to Chang’e with incense, cake and fruit every mid-autumn day. Along with the legend, the custom of worshiping the moon on the Mid-autumn Day has been passed down from generation to generation. There is also a rabbit on the moon, white as jade,so it is called ‘jade rabbit’. It is said that the jade rabbit is a companion of Chang’e. To help the Chang’e reunited with her husband in the moon palace, it constantly pounds the elixir of immortality on the moon As time passed, the jade rabbit became synonymous with the moon.
Today, Mid-autumn Festival is a very important family gathering. It’s when “People and the moon reunite to form a full circle,” as an old saying goes. It is a time for family members and loved ones to congregate and enjoy the mooncake and full moon, which both an auspicious symbol of abundance, harmony , completeness . In this day, people will hang a lantern and eat the mooncake together with family, relatives or friends, to express their love and friends their best wishes.
