Chinese Festivals - The Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Festival)
The Mid-Autumn Festival ( (Zhong Qiu Jie - 中秋节)also known as the Moon Festival, is the second most important folks' festival for the Chinese for Chinese people. It is on the 15th of the 8th Lunar Month in Chinese Calendar. Since it is in the middle of fall season, the Mid-Autumn Festival simbolizes the season of harvest. Chinese people show great respect to this festival in order to pray for a joyful year-end.
The moon on that evening is extremely clear and bright. People usually associate the reunion of family members with the full moon. So travellers often miss their hometown and relatives at the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is also yet another festival in China which encourages family members to get together.
There are many stories about the moon. "Chang'e fleeing to the Moon" is the most popular story in Chinese culture. Chang'e is the moon goddess in the Chinese legends. The story goes that a very beautiful lady named Chang'e in Xia Dynasty (2070 to 1600 B. C. ) stole the potion of Immortality and it made her body so light she floated to the moon against her own willing. The poor fairy did receive the immortality but was cloistered for ever on the moon. On the 15th evening on the 8th Lunar month every year, she would walk out from her Moon Palace and look far to the human world and cry for her lonelyness. So the moon on that evening is extremely full and bright. The legend also expresses the wishful thinking of the Chinese people to land on the moon. Just recently, the CNSA (China National Space Administration) just launched a probe to the moon for exploration. They purposely named the probe Chang'e No. 1.
Mooncakes have been the particular food for the festival since ancient China. It is said that leaders of farm uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty put into the mooncakes a piece of paper informing the time for uprising. Since then, sending mooncakes to each other and to relatives has become the custom among people. In Ming and Qing Dynasties, mooncakes have become even more popular for the festival. Today varieties of moon cakes are on the market around the Mid-Autumn Festival, with particular attention to the styles of mooncake making. Styles of Beijing, Guangzhou, Suzhou and Sichuan are more recognized throughout the country. The price has gone up as well due to the increasing popularity of well known custom.
Today members of the family will often get together for a dinner for the festival, and then they will sit and chat and eat mooncakes happily under the full, bright moon.
