By Lina Zhu and Lijin Zhao
The Legend Love Story The Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival celebrated notably by the Chinese families. It’s also related to Chuseok (in Korea) and Tsukimi (in Japan). It traditionally falls on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second most important festival in China after the Chinese New Year. Chinese people celebrate it by gathering for dinners and lighting paper lanterns. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Moon Festival. In the past, the Moon Festival was celebrated at harvest time. It was described as a
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September 2020 | Culture
day for emperors to celebrate the year’s harvest by giving offerings to the moon and hosting a great feast. The ordinary people took the Mid-Autumn Festival to be a celebration of their hard work and harvest. Nowadays, people mainly celebrate the Moon Festival as a time for family reunions. There is also a legendary love story about the history of the moon festival. Once upon a time, there were ten suns in the sky, scorching many crops and people to death. The Emperor of Heaven summoned Hou Yi to shoot down nine of the suns. He succeeded. The weather soon recovered and life was saved. Hou Yi was rewarded with the elixir of immortali-
ty. However, Hou Yi wanted to stay with his beloved wife, Chang E. At about this time, since Hou Yi was world-renowned (in ancient China, at least) for having killed nine of their former suns, a ton of well-meaning sycophants sought Houyi out for apprenticeship. Among these apprentices was the crafty and not-so-well-meaning Peng Meng. On the 15th day, before Hou Yi returned home from hunting, Peng Meng went to Hou Yi’s home and forced Chang E to give him the elixir. She knew that she could not defeat Peng Meng so, with no other choice, she drank the elixir herself. When Hou Yi came back, he found that his wife had been lifted to Heaven. Chang E decided to live on the Moon because it’s closest to the Earth. Hou Yi looked up at the moon and put out foods Chang E used to love in the garden as a sacrifice. Thus, people started admiring the moon on this day.
