Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival or the Moon Festival) occurs on the second day of the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which occurs in September or October in the Chinese lunar calendar. It falls on September 21st each year for the entire year. There are numerous interesting customs that take place during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Chinese people like to celebrate the new year with a variety of traditional foods such as moon cakes, melons, and apples. The mooncakes that are served in this festival are called liu wei di (lit: new moon cake) and they symbolize fertility and prosperity. They are usually red in color.
Mid Autumn Festival Story
The Moon Festival legend about Hou Yi and Chang E is always told to children at this time. Once upon a time, there were ten suns in the sky, scorching many crops and people to death. The Emperor of Heaven summoned Hou Yi to shoot down nine of the suns. Hou Yi succeeded, the weather soon recovered and life was saved. Hou Yi was rewarded with the elixir of immortality. While Hou Yi was still on the Earth, he met Chang E, they fell in love and were married.
Hou Yi wanted to spend his life with Chang E forever, so he went to the Western Queen Mother to ask for the elixir of life. For the good deeds that Hou Yi had performed for the Earth, the Western Queen Mother agreed to give him the elixir, sufficient for two people, half each. Hou Yi returned home and told his wife. They decided to drink it together on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month when the moon was round and bright. But a wicked man named Feng Meng overheard them and wanted the elixir for himself.
On the 15th day, before Hou Yi returned home from hunting, Feng Meng went to Hou Yi’s home and forced Chang E to give him the elixir. She knew that she could not defeat Feng Meng so, with no other choice, she drank the elixir all by herself. When Hou Yi came back, he found that his wife had been lifted to Heaven. Chang E decided to live on the Moon because it’s closest to the Earth. Hou Yi looked up at the moon and put the foods Chang E used to love in the garden as a sacrifice. Thus, people started admiring the moon on this day. Later, Chang E and Hou Yi came to represent the yin and yang respectively (the moon and the sun).
The Mid-Autumn Festival Story is a very old one. According to an ancient Chinese legend, the moon had no face and was always the same size, so a mid-autumn festival was created so that people would know when the new year had come. When the moon was bigger than the earth, a bad wind came out and scared the people, causing many deaths. As punishment, the people had to give birth next January, so people made new mooncakes to celebrate. Many people say that the mooncakes represent fertility and prosperity because the new moon represents new beginnings, while the mooncakes remind people of joy and happiness because they are small, but they symbolize joy and renewal.
The Mid-Autumn Festival Story also says that to keep people’s spirits high, they put full moon cakes into their mouths. Full moon cakes are small cakes filled with lots of dried fruits, nuts, raisins, sultanas, sugar, and other sweeteners. Legend has it that if a full moon cake is eaten every year by a child, that child will grow up to be a good person. This is because the soul of a person is drawn towards the light, so in ancient times, full moon cakes were hung from trees and people used to say that the moon was the soul of that particular person. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a very special day for the Chinese people and they pay much respect to the full moon and it’s the reason why the Mid-Autumn Festival is considered to be the start of winter. It is also believed that in ancient times, the moon goddess took a small child under her protection and made that child grow up into a strong and good man.
Another Mid-Autumn Festival Story told about how the daughter of the Emperor of China’s palace ate the mooncakes made out of her mother’s milk and as a result got ill, so she demanded that Emperor Cuiyan give her a cup of mooncakes. As a result, the emperor made a vow to give her three small cups of mooncakes every year on that day. On this day, the emperor took his leave and went to the city of Yen’s where he spent the whole day with his wife. On the morning of the final day, he went to the hut where his young daughter was asleep and as he arrived, he saw his daughter smiling as she ate her small cup of mooncakes.
Mid-Autumn Festival Story says that the moon in the sky resembles a dragon as that is the symbol of power and good fortune for those who consume it. In addition, the moon in the sky represents good health, prosperity and many other positive things. If you remember back, the full moon in the sky represents a full moon celebration and this falls on the 15th of October, which is also the Chinese national autumn festival. Full moon festival is a time for full family gathering, friends and relatives to get together to enjoy eating and celebrating the New Year.
For more information, if you are interested in the Mid-Autumn Festival in Taiwan, you can find Mid-Autumn Festival stories online and in other sources. You can also read Mid-Autumn Festival story in newspapers and magazines. It is important that you understand the meaning of Mid-Autumn Festival Story and keep in mind that the moon in the sky is very precious and its energy holds significant power. The full moon in the sky is a symbol of love, nutrition, fertility and many other positive happenings for many years to come ahead.
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