Myth and Origin of Mid Autumn Festival

Mid- autumn festival is a popular Chinese celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China’s Zhou Dynasty. The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar and at this point of time, the moon is the fullest and roundest as seen on earth. The custom of celebrating this festival can be traced as far back as the ancient Xia Dynasty (2000BC) of China. The people celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival to worship the moon as they believed that the there is a god watching over them from the moon.

According to a widespread folktale, the tradition of taking moon cake started when the people in China wanted to rebel against the Mongolian rulers. However, it was very difficult for them to meet up or pass messages to one. Thus, a advisor names Liu Bowen advise the leader of the rebellion party, Zhu Yuan Zhang to distribute the Moon cakes containing a piece of paper to thousands of Chinese. The message wrote "Kill the Mongolians on the 15th day of the Eighth Moon". And this proves to be a great success. After this incident, Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated with moon cakes.

There are many interpretations to the legend of Chang E and Hou yi. The most famous one being the earth once had ten suns circling over it, each taking turn to illuminate the earth. One day, however, all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. Houyi, a strong and tyrannical archer, saved the earth by shooting down nine of the suns. He eventually became King, but grew to become a despot

One day, Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However, his beautiful wife, Chang'e, drank it in order to save the people from her husband’s tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating, and flew to the moon. Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much that he did not shoot down the moon.