The Mid-Autumn Festival

The time of this festival
The festival is celebrated at the 15th day of the eighth lunar month in China. On this day, the moon is extremely bright and perfectly round. The festival represents theunity and leisure of the people, as well as the harvest of the nature.
[pic]
The legend of this festival
There are many legends about this festival. The most popular one among the Chinese people is‘Hou Yi Shooting the Suns'.

The story goes that during the time of Yao (about 2,000 B.C.), there lived a talented archer named Houyi. One day ten suns appeared in the sky at the same time. Theirscorching heat withered the crops on the earth and made people unbearable. Ordered by Emperor Yao, Houyi shot nine of them out of the sky leaving only one. As a prize for this extraordinary feat, he wasgiven a pill of immortality from the goddess. The pill, however, was stolen by his wife named Chang E. She ate it and flew off to the moon where she lived in solitude, only accompanied by a Jade Rabbit.[pic]
Worshiping the Moon
The custom of worshiping the Moon can be traced back as far as Xia and Shang Dynasties (2000 B.C. - 1066 B.C). Today, Chinese people send their relatives and friends mooncakes as festival gift to extend their best wishes of union when the day is drawing near.

They are supposed to enjoy themselves under the silver moonlight outside eating the moon cakes andappreciating the full bright moon in the evening of the festival. If one of the family members is far away on duty and fail to come home at the festival, he or she will convey the homesickness and missingthrough the moon. Therefore, the moon has become a medium of communication and spiritual sustenance.
[pic]
The cultural meaning of this festival
To Chinese people today, it is not the romanticstories but the tradition of having family reunion on the festival that has a special appeal, because, as it might be difficult for the Westerners to understand.

In the view of Chinese people, the...