Mid-Autumn Festival

“Bright moon,when did you appear?

Lifting my wine,I question the dark night sky.

Tonight in the palaces and halls of heaven,

what year is it,I wonder?”

The Prelude to Water Melody by Su Shi,a famous poet in the Song Dynasty (960-1279),is often recalled when the Mid-Autumn Festival is mentioned.The full moon in the sky,the people’s reunion on Earth,the round table,watermelon and moon cake under the grape arbor,as well as Chang E flying to the moon,jade rabbit pounding medicine,Wu Gang chopping down the cassia tree and other magical legends also come to mind.

Mid-Autumn Festival, also called Tuanyuan (reunion) Festival,is a major festival second only to Spring Festival among traditional Chinese festivals.The 7th,8th,9th lunar months constitute the autumn,and the 15th day of the eighth lunar month is mid-point of autumn,so it is called the Mid-Autumn Festival.The reason why it is also called Tuanyuan Festival is because people will go back home to celebrate,and the daughter-in-law who has been at the parental home has to go back to her husband’s family.It is generally believed that the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival is associated with the ancient custom of moon worship.The Chinese ancient emperors had to worship the sun,the moon,the heaven and the earth throughout the year in a schedule like this: worship the sun on the Spring Equinox (around March 21),worship the moon on the Autumn Equinox (around September 22 or 23),worship heaven on the Winter Solstice (between December 21to 23),and worship the earth on the Summer Solstice (June 21 or 22).Places of worship are located in the east,west,south and north of the capital,which are called the sun altar (east),the moon altar (west),the heaven altar (south) and the earth altar (north).The four altars in Beijing were built according to this principle.

Moon worship could be found before the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC),however,as the festival,Mid-Autumn Festival was fixed by the early Tang Dynasty (618-907) and became popular in the Song Dynasty.

Eating moon cake is an important custom of Mid-Autumn Festival.Moon cake was originally used to worship goddess of the moon,and later became a festival food of Mid-Autumn Festival.The earliest record of eating moon cake can be found in the Tang Dynasty,in which Tang Xizong gave moon cakes to the successful candidates in the highest imperial examination,however,it was not called moon cake until the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279).Since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644),there have been numerous detailed accounts of the types of moon cake and the methods of preparation.Even now,the moon cake is still a fine gift to relatives and friends.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Like other traditional festivals,the Mid-Autumn Festival has been endowed with a number of myths and legends,of which the most famous is Chang E flying to the moon.

According to legend,Chang E and Hou Yi were a very affectionate couple in the period of Emperor Yao of ancient times.One year,there were ten suns rose in the sky,which dried up the rivers,scorched the crops and drove people into dire poverty.Hou Yi ascended to the top of the mountain,directing his superhuman strength to fullest extent,drew his extraordinary bow and shot down the nine superfluous suns one after another.To thank Hou Yi,a fairy gave him an elixir that would allow one to ascend immediately to Heaven and become a celestial being.Hou Yi,however,hated to part with his wife,so he gave the elixir to Chang E to treasure for the time being.But,a base person discovered its presence,and one day when Hou Yi was not at home,he tried to force Chang E to hand over the elixir.She had no choice but to swallow it in one gulp; immediately,her body floated off the ground,and flew towards Heaven.Unwilling to leave her husband,Chang E settled down on the Moon as the nearest planetary object to the Earth.It was on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month that all this happened.When Hou Yi returned home,he was inconsolable when he learnt what had happened.Overcome with grief,he had an incense table arranged in the courtyard.Putting on the table deserts and fresh fruits that Chang E enjoyed most,he looked up into the night sky,and he found that the moon was especially clear and bight and on it there was a swaying shadow that was exactly like his wife.

When people heard of the story that Chang E had turned into a celestial being,they arranged the incense table with fresh fruits in the moonlight one after another and prayed for good fortune and peace.

From then on,every 15th day of the 8th lunar month when a full moon rose into the sky,people both rich and poor would arrange a family dinner to celebrate reunion under the Moon.As the poet says,“May we all be blessed with longevity,though far apart,we are still able to share the beauty of the moonlight” (Su Shi’s Prelude to Water Melody),so people will also look to the Moon to send their wishes and blessings to loved ones far away.

Under the same full moon,the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month seems lively with cheerfulness of the spring,while Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month seems a bit chilly with melancholy of autumn.