The Moon Festival

The Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is a highly celebrated festival in the Chinese culture and is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese.  The Moon Festival is being celebrated Sunday and is a time when families gather together to watch the full moon, sing poems about the moon and share mooncakes. During Emily's Chinese class this week, we learned various words and stories relating to the Moon Festival. 

The legend of the Moon Festival:  There were once 10 suns in the sky in China.  This caused severe heat and drought; the people suffered and no vegetables would grow.  A young man named Houyi decided to try to save the village and shot down 9 of the suns with his bow and arrow.  After succeeding, Houyi became a hero in his village and the village arranged for a beautiful maiden, Chang E, to be his queen.  Houyi was a harsh ruler and ordered his imperial court to develop a longevity pill that would enable him to live a longer life. In order to save the people from Houyi's tyrannical rule, Chang E tried to steal the medicine.  Before she had a chance to get away, she saw the imperial guards approaching and swallowed all of the pills for fear of being caught.  She then found herself floating and flew to the moon.  Houyi loved his beautiful wife so much that he wouldn't shoot down the moon. Chang E lived happily ever after on the moon and became known as the Moon Fairy.

During class,  Helen LaoShi (teacher) treated us to mooncakes (she normally brings Ritz crackers or goldfish for the kids).  Surprisingly, the kids didn't really care for the mooncakes and started chanting for the Ritz.  But the moms enjoyed the mooncakes, and Miss Helen gave us each one to bring home and share w our families for the Moon Festival.