Usually round to resemble the moon, these rich pastries are typically filled with sweet-bean, egg yolk, meat or lotus-seed paste. Making and sharing mooncakes is one of the most recognisable traditions of this festival. Today, it is still an occasion for outdoor reunions among friends and relatives to have dinner together on the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival and observe the Moon, a symbol of harmony and unity. The festival has long been a time to mark the successful reaping of rice and wheat with food offerings made in honour of the moon. How People Celebrate Mid-Autumn FestivalĪs the second most important festival in China, Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated in many traditional ways. To prevent losing it, Chang’e swallowed it herself and flew up to the moon as her immortal home from where she could look down on her beloved husband.Īlong with this legend, the custom of worshipping the moon on Mid-Autumn day has been passed down from generation to generation. One mid-autumn day, while Hou Yi was out hunting, an evil person tried to steal the elixir. So, he asked Chang'e to keep it safe for him. He was rewarded with an elixir of immortality which he did not drink because he could not face immortality without his wife. The festival’s origin is also associated with the popular legend of Chang’e, the goddess of the moon.Ĭhang’e’s husband, Hou Yi, was an accomplished archer who shot down nine of the ten suns and saved people from their fierce heat. 1600–1046 BC) Chinese emperors worshiped the moon in autumn to thank it for the harvest. It is called the Mid-Autumn Festival because it is held on the 15th of the 8th lunar month in the Chinese calendar around the autumn equinox.Įnjoying a popularity similar to that of the Chinese New Year, the festival is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture with a history that dates back over 3,000 years.Īs long ago as the Shang Dynasty (c. Similar holidays take place in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other countries in East and Southeast Asia.įDM offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney and London also celebrated the occasion, learning the history of the festival and its significance, lantern making and, of course, eating mooncakes! The Origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival In the class, children also enjoyed nut free Mooncakes.The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is a traditional festival celebrated in Chinese culture. The Stage 3 students presented amazing Chinese Moon Festival art work by using their paper cutting skills taught by Ms. In Chinese class, students learned the mythical story, made lanterns, and Yutu (Jade rabbit). As the legend said the Moon Festival night the Moon lady Chang’e and her YuTuzi (Jade rabbit) will appear from the Moon shadow. It is said, sentimentally, that “the moon on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival is the brightest, the biggest and the most beautiful”.Ĭhinese people usually set a table outside their houses and sit together to admire the full moon while enjoying tasty mooncakes. The full moon is the symbol of family reunions in Chinese culture. Ceremonies are held both to give thanks for the harvest and to encourage the harvest-giving light to return again in the coming year. Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration of the rice harvest and many fruits. It is also celebrated by many other Asian countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines etc. It is the second most important festival in China after Chinese New Year. Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhongqiu Jie or 中秋节 in Chinese, is also called the Moon Festival or the Mooncake Festival.
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