The Moon-Cake Festival is also called Zhongqiu-Jie or the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is the second grandest traditional festival celebrated by Chinese people, is an occasion for family reunion. The festival falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of each lunar year. Traditionally, all family members should go home for a family dinner. After having dinner, they often sit together in the courtyard of their house, eating peanuts, chatting, singing, and enjoying the beauty of the brightest and roundest moon once a year. If one of the family members could not return home, for example, a husband who was far away from home, he would convey his homesickness to his wife and family members by talking to the moon. At the same time, the wife would do the same thing in return to express her love and concern for her husband. The full moon in autumn has become the symbol of family reunion for over a thousand years.
It is commonly believed that the Moon-Cake Festival originated from the legend of Houyi and Chang’e. It goes that there used to be ten suns in the sky a long time ago, the world became unbearable hot, and crops withered in the scorching sun. Houyi was a talented archer who was sent to shoot down nine of the suns by King Yao(a king who lived before the 21st century B.C.). He succeeded and was given the elixir of life by a goddess as a reward. Houyi did not want to leave his wife, Chang’e, and asked her to keep the elixir. A thief tried to stole the elixir when the archer went out. At the critical moment, Chang’e had to ingest the elixir. Suddenly, she ascended to the moon and could not go home. Since then, the wife has lived in solitude with her white rabbit. The husband missed his wife much, and put the favorite food of his wife on a table on the fifteenth day of each lunar month, as if she could eat the food. Her favourite food included moon-cakes, fruits and peanuts.
Another legend has it that the custom of eating the moon-cake began in the Song Dynasty(960-1279). During the Yuan Dynasty(1271-1368), people were ground down due to years of oppression. They made an attempt to rise in revolt. Before the uprising broke out, the leaders wrote a message on slips of paper and hided them in round cakes. When the rebels ate the cake and found the message, they knew what they should do in the military action.
Nowadays, people can make a video call to their family members and friends due to the progress of technology. But the custom of celebrating the Moon-Cake Festival will never vanish among Chinese people, because it has become a prominent part of Chinese culture.
Author: Tina Luo
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