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Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is also celebrated in

Chinese communities such as the San Francisco

Chinatown.

Chinese name

Traditional Chinese шぉク

Simplified Chinese шぉ弜

Transliterations

Mandarin

- Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngqiūjié

Min

- Hokkien POJ Tiong-chhiu-chiat

Cantonese

- Jyutping zung1 cau1 zit3

Min name

Chinese 悟━ク

Transliterations

Min

- Hokkien POJ Peh-go̍eh-cheh

- Min-dong BUC Báik-nguŏk-cáik

Vietnamese name

Quốc ngữ Tết Trung Thu

Chữ nôm クшぉ

Mid-Autumn FestivalFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the MoonFestival, Zhongqiu Festival, or in Chinese, Zhongqiujie(traditional Chinese: шぉク), or in Vietnamese "Tết TrungThu", is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese,Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese people, dating back over3,000 years to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty. Itwas first called Zhongqiu Jie (literally "Mid-AutumnFestival") in the Zhou Dynasty.[1] In Malaysia, Singapore, andthe Philippines, it is also sometimes referred to as theLantern Festival or Mooncake Festival. It is also relatedto the important Korean holiday of Chuseok.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of theeighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is usually aroundlate September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. Itis a date that parallels the autumnal equinox of the solarcalendar, when the moon is supposedly at its fullest androundest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake,of which there are many different varieties.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the few most importantholidays in the Chinese calendar, the others being ChineseNew Year and Winter Solstice, and is a legal holiday inseveral countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summerharvesting season on this date. Traditionally on this day,Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire thebright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes andpomelos under the moon together. Accompanying thecelebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs,such as:

Putting pomelo rinds on one's headCarrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers,floating sky lanternsBurning incense in reverence to deities includingChang'e (Chinese: 咤傅; pinyin: Cháng'é)Planting Mid-Autumn treesCollecting dandelion leaves and distributing themevenly among family membersFire Dragon DancesIn Taiwan, since the 1980s, barbecuing meat outdoorshas become a widespread way to celebrate the Mid-

22/9/2010 Mid-Autumn Festival - Wikipedia, the fr…

en.wikipedia.org/…/Mid-Autumn_Festival 1/6

Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations inVictoria Park, Hong Kong

Mooncakes are often eaten during thefestival.

Autumn Festival.[2][3]

Shops selling mooncakes before the festival often display pictures ofChang'e floating to the moon.

Contents

1 Stories of the Mid-Autumn Festival1.1 Houyi and Chang'e1.2 The Hare or The Jade Rabbit1.3 Overthrow of Mongol rule

2 Vietnamese version3 Dates4 See also5 References6 External links

Stories of the Mid-Autumn Festival

Houyi and Chang'e

Celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival is strongly associated with thelegend of Houyi and Chang'e, the Moon Goddess of Immortality.Tradition places these two figures from Chinese mythology around2170 BCE, during the reign of the legendary Emperor Yao, shortlyafter that of Huangdi. Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures whopersonify the moon, Chang'e simply lives on the moon but is not themoon per se.

There are many variants and adaptations of the legend of Chang'e thatfrequently contradict each other. However, most versions of thelegend involve some variation of the following elements: Houyi, the



Mid-Autumn Festival at the BotanicalGarden, Montreal

legend involve some variation of the following elements: Houyi, theArcher, an emperor, either benevolent or malevolent, and an elixir oflife.

One version of the legend states that Houyi was an immortal andChang'e was a beautiful young girl, working in the palace of the JadeEmperor (the Emperor of Heaven, の條 pinyin:Yùdì) as an attendantto the Queen Mother of the West (the Jade Emperor's wife). Houyiaroused the jealousy of the other immortals, who then slandered himbefore the Jade Emperor. Houyi and his wife, Chang'e, weresubsequently banished from heaven. They were forced to live onEarth. Houyi had to hunt to survive and became a skilled and famousarcher.

At that time, there were ten suns, in the form of three-legged birds,residing in a mulberry tree in the eastern sea. Each day one of the sunbirds would have to travel around the world on a carriage, driven byXihe, the 'mother' of the suns. One day, all ten of the suns circledtogether, causing the Earth to burn. Emperor Yao, the Emperor ofChina, commanded Houyi to use his archery skill to shoot down allbut one of the suns. Upon completion of his task, the Emperorrewarded Houyi with a pill that granted eternal life. Emperor Yao advised Houyi not to swallow the pill immediatelybut instead to prepare himself by praying and fasting for a year before taking it.[4] Houyi took the pill home and hidit under a rafter. One day, Houyi was summoned away again by Emperor Yao. During her husband's absence,Chang'e, noticed a white beam of light beckoning from the rafters, and discovered the pill. Chang'e swallowed itand immediately found that she could fly. Houyi returned home, realizing what had happened he began to reprimandhis wife. Chang'e escaped by flying out the window into the sky.[4]

Houyi pursued her halfway across the heavens but was forced to return to Earth because of strong winds. Chang'ereached the moon, where she coughed up part of the pill.[4] Chang'e commanded the hare that lived on the moon tomake another pill. Chang'e would then be able to return to Earth and her husband.

The legend states that the hare is still pounding herbs, trying to make the pill. Houyi built himself a palace in the sun,representing "Yang" (the male principle), in contrast to Chang'e's home on the moon which represents "Yin" (thefemale principle). Once a year, on the fifteenth day of the full moon, Houyi visits his wife. That is the reason why themoon is very full and beautiful on that night.[4]

This description appears in written form in two Western Han dynasty (206 BC-24 AD) collections; Shan Hai Jing,the Classic of the Mountains and Seas and Huainanzi, a philosophical classic.[5]

Another version of the legend, similar to the one above, differs in saying that Chang'e swallowed the pill ofimmortality because Peng, one of Houyi's many apprentice archers, tried to force her to give the pill to him.Knowing that she could not fight off Peng, Chang'e had no choice but to swallow the pill herself.

Other versions say that Houyi and Chang'e were still immortals living in heaven at the time that Houyi killed nine ofthe suns. The sun birds were the sons of the Jade Emperor, who punished Houyi and Chang'e by forcing them tolive on Earth as mortals. Seeing that Chang'e felt extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Houyi decided tofind the pill that would restore it. At the end of his quest, he met the Queen Mother of the West, who agreed to givehim the pill, but warned him that each person would only need half a pill to regain immortality. Houyi brought the pill



A depiction of Chang'e and the JadeRabbit

home and stored it in a case. He warned Chang'e not to open the case, and then left home for a while. LikePandora in Greek mythology, Chang'e became curious. She opened up the case and found the pill, just as Houyiwas returning home. Nervous that Houyi would catch her, discovering the contents of the case, she accidentallyswallowed the entire pill, and started to float into the sky because of the overdose.

Some versions of the legend do not refer to Houyi or Chang'e as having previously been immortals and initiallypresent them as mortals instead.

There are also versions of the story in which Houyi is rewarded for killing nine of the suns and saving the people bybeing made king. However, King Houyi became a despot. He gained the pill of immortality, either by stealing itfrom the Queen Mother of the West or by learning that he could make pills by grinding up the body of anadolescent boy every night for a hundred nights. Chang'e stole the pill and swallowed it herself, either to stop moreboys being killed or to prevent her husband's tyrannical rule from lasting forever.

The Hare or The Jade Rabbit

According to tradition, the Jade Rabbit pounds medicine, togetherwith the lady, Chang'e, for the gods. Others say that the Jade Rabbitis a shape, assumed by Chang'e herself. The dark areas to the top ofthe full moon may be construed as the figure of a rabbit. The animal'sears point to the upper right, while at the left are two large circularareas, representing its head and body.[6]

In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful oldmen, and begged for food from a fox, a monkey, and a hare. The foxand the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the hare,empty-handed, jumped into a blazing fire to offer his own fleshinstead. The sages were so touched by the hare's sacrifice and act ofkindness that they let him live in the Moon Palace, where he becamethe "Jade Rabbit".

Overthrow of Mongol rule

According to a widespread folk tale (not necessarily supported byhistorical records), the Mid-Autumn Festival commemorates anuprising in China against the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty(1280–1368) in the 14th century.[7] As group gatherings werebanned, it was impossible to make plans for a rebellion.[7] Noting that the Mongols did not eat mooncakes, LiuBowen (視貨ȷ) of Zhejiang Province, advisor to the Chinese rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang, came up with the ideaof timing the rebellion to coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival. He sought permission to distribute thousands ofmoon cakes to the Chinese residents in the city to bless the longevity of the Mongol emperor. Inside each cake,however, was inserted a piece of paper with the message: "Kill the Mongols on the 15th day of the 8th month"(traditional Chinese: 悟━順陰鐱阽坏; simplified Chinese: 悟━順陰┹酺坏).[7] On the night of the MoonFestival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment ofthe Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), under Zhu. Henceforth, the Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated with mooncakes on a national level.



Vietnamese children celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival with traditional 5-

pointed star-shaped lantern

Vietnamese version

The Mid-Autumn festival is named "Tết Trung Thu" in Vietnamese.

The Vietnamese version of the holiday recounts the legend of Cuội,whose wife accidentally urinated on a sacred banyan tree, taking himwith it to the Moon. Every year, on the mid-autumn festival, childrenlight lanterns and participate in a procession to show Cuội the way toEarth.[8]

In Vietnam, Mooncakes are typically square rather than round, thoughround ones do exist. Besides the indigenous tale of the banyan tree,other legends are widely told including the story of the Moon Lady,and the story of the carp who wanted to become a dragon.[8]

One important event before and during Vietnamese Mid-AutumnFestival are lion dances. The dances are performed by both non-professional children group and trained professional groups. Lion dance groups perform on the streets go to housesasking for permission to perform for them. If accepted by the host, "the lion" will come in and start dancing as awish of luck and fortune � and the host gives back lucky money to show thankfulness.

Dates

The moon festival will occur on these days in coming years:[9]

2010: September 222011: September 122012: September 302013: September 192014: September 82015: September 272016: September 152017: October 42018: September 242019: September 132020: October 1

See also

Chinese New YearChinese holidaysList of Harvest FestivalsTsukimi, analogous Japanese festivalChuseok, analogous Korean festivalTidal bore of Qiantang RiverVietnamese holidays



Vietnamese culture

References

1. ^ Chinese language article about references to the Mid Autumn festival in ancient Chinese text - chinapage.com(http://www.chinapage.com/festival/midautumn.html)

2. ^ [1] (http://www.culture.tw/index.php?option=com_content&task=rdmap&id=1417&Itemid=262)3. ^ [2] (http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/foreign-community/2009/10/04/227279/Mid-Autumn-Festival.htm)

4. ̂a b c d Chinatown.com.au (http://www.chinatown.com.au/eng/article.asp?masterid=155&articleid=736)5. ^ Shanghai me (http://www.shme.com/culture/legend/houyi.htm)6. ^ Chinatown Online - your guide to all things Chinese (http://www.chinatown.com.au/eng/article.asp?

masterid=155&articleid=736)

7. ̂a b c Examination of the legend against the historical backdrop of mongol dynasty(http://www.chinatownology.com/mooncake_and_mongols.html)

8. ̂a b familyculture.com tettrungthu (http://www.familyculture.com/holidays/tettrungthu.htm)9. ^ "Chinese Lunar Network" (http://nongli114.com/index.php/lunarHoliday/2009/21.html) (in Simplified Chinese).

http://nongli114.com/index.php/lunarHoliday/2009/21.html.

External links

Lantern Festival (http://www.lantern-festival.com/) Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival Planning & ProductionMoon Festival in San Francisco (http://www.sanfranciscochinatown.com/events/moonfestival.html)Autumn Moon Festival in Australia (http://www.moonlanternfestival.com.au)chinatown.com.au (http://www.chinatown.com.au/eng/article.asp?masterid=155&articleid=736)The Stories of the Chinese Moon Festival (http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/midfallstory.htm)Origin of Mid-Autumn Festival (http://www.chinavoc.com/festivals/Midautumn.htm#cake)Têt Trung Thu (http://www.familyculture.com/holidays/tettrungthu.htm)More photos of Mid-Autumn Festival (http://www.12hk.com/festivals/MidAutumn/MidAutumn.html)Free Moon Festival Resources - Learning Chinese (http://www.childbook.com/Chinese-Moon-Festival-Midautumn-Festival-s/94.htm)Chinese Moon Festival in Thailand (http://chiangmaibest.com/chiang-mai-events-thailand-holidays/chinese-moon-festival-wan-wai-phra-jan/)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival"Categories: Chinese holidays | Chinese traditional religion | Festivals in China | Vietnamese culture | Festivals inVietnam | Public holidays in the Republic of China | Holidays in Hong Kong | September observances | Autumnholidays | Public holidays in Vietnam | Harvest festivals

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