The Legends behind the Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival, or the Moon Cake Festival is a time where
Chinese families get together to eat moon cakes and enjoy the full
moon - an auspicious symbol of abundance, harmony and luck. Its
also a time where kids can also parade around their neighborhood
with their fancy and colorful lanterns.
The moon plays a significant part of this festival. Here are some
legendary "moon" stories behind this Festival.
The Mooncake
Nobody actually knows when the custom of eating moon cake to
celebrate the Moon Festival began, but one belief traces its origin
to the Yuan dynasty - when China was ruled by the Mongolian people.
Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty were unhappy at submitting
to foreign rule.
According to one Chinese folk tale, a Han Chinese rebel leader
named Liu Fu Tong devised a scheme to arouse the Han Chinese to
rise up against the ruling Mongols. He sought permission from
Mongolian leaders to give gifts to friends as a symbolic gesture to
honor the longevity of the Mongolian emperor. These gifts were
round mooncakes. Inside, Liu had his followers place pieces of
paper with the date and plan the Han Chinese were to strike out in
rebellion -- on the fifteenth night of the eighth month.
Thus, Liu got word to his people, who when they cut open the
mooncakes found the message and set out to overthrow the Mongols,
thus ending the Yuan dynasty.
The Legend of Chang Er
The legend begins long ago in China, where there lived a beautiful
lady named Chang Er. She was the wife of Hou Yi, a skilled archer.
The earth was said to have ten suns circling over it then. Each sun
will take its turn to illuminate to the earth. But one day all ten
suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat.
Hou Yi was called upon to save the earth. He succeeded in shooting
down nine of the ten suns and, thus, prevented the earth from
becoming scorched. For this heroic deed, he was summoned to the
fairies' palace. There, he was rewarded with a pill that would
grant him immortality.
One day, while Hou Yi was out hunting, Chang Er discovered the pill
and swallowed it. As soon as she swallowed it, Chang Er found
herself floating and she flew to the moon.
When Chang Er reached the moon, she found a tree under which there
was a friendly hare. Because the air on the moon is cold, she began
coughing and the Immortality Pill came out of her throat. She
thought it would be good to pound the pill into small pieces and
scatter them on Earth so that everyone could be immortal. So she
ordered the hare to pound the pill, built a palace for herself and
remained on the moon.
This helpful hare is referred to in Chinese mythology as the Jade
Hare. Because of his and Chang Er legendary importance, you will
sometimes see - stamped on every mooncake, every mooncake box, and
every Moon Cake Festival poster - images of Chang Er with the Jade
Hare.
Many elderly Chinese still believe that the legendary Chang Er and
her pet rabbit reside on the moon and if one looks closely, one
might just catch a glimpse of them
