Introduction to Chinese Traditional Festival - Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival which also called Mooncake Festival is one of the most important traditional festival in China. As its name shows, it is in the middle of Autumn, and people eat mooncake and admire the full moon together on that day. There is also a story about the festival.
In the ancient past, there was a hero named  Hou Yi who was very excellent at archery. He had a wife called Chang e. One year, there ware ten suns rasing in the sky together, which was a great disaster to people. Thus Yi shot down nine of the suns and left only one to provide light. An immortal admired Yi so that gave him an elixir to be an immortal. Yi did not want to leave Chang e, so he let Chang e keep the elixir. However, one of his apprentices named Peng Meng, knew this secret. On the fifteenth of August in the lunar calendar, Peng Meng broke into Yi's house and forced Chang e to give the elixir to him while Yi went hunting. Chang'e refused to do so. Instead, she swallowed it then flew into the sky. Since she loved her husband very much and hoped to live nearby, she chose the moon as her residence. When Yi came back and knew what had happened, he felt so sad that he displayed the fruits and cakes that Chang e liked in the yard as the sacrifices to his wife. People soon knew about these things, ever since they also participated in these sacrifices with Yi, which are eating mooncake and admire the full moon. That's the story of Mooncake Festival.
As a result, it is also a day for family reunion. 

By Tammy (CAMID1501)