Moon Festival

What is the Chinese Moon Festival?

The Chinese Moon Festival, or sometimes called the Mid-Autumn Festival, takes place on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. The festival dates back to the Tang dynasty 618 A.D. and celebrates the biggest and brightest full moon of the year, the harvest moon.

As with many Chinese celebrations, there are ancient legends to explain the holiday. The Chinese were, and still are, an agricultural society. In ancient times, they planted and harvested by the lunar calendar, using the moon as an important time reference and guide.

One of the legends about the Moon Festival is about a builder or architect named Hou Yih. Hou Yih built a beautiful jade palace for the Goddess of the Western Heaven or sometimes called the Royal Mother. The Goddess was so happy that she gave Hou Yih a special pill that contained the magic elixir of immortality. But with it came the condition and warning that he may not use the pill until he had accomplished certain things.

Hou Yih had a beautiful wife named Chang-O. Chang-O was as curious as she was beautiful. One day she found the pill and without telling her husband, she swallowed it.

The Goddess of the Western Heaven was very angry and as a punishment, Chang-O was banished to the moon where, according to the legend, Chang-O can be seen at her most beautiful on the night of the bright harvest moon.

The Moon Festival is a big holiday with family reunions, moon gazing activities, and feasting on "moon cakes" which are round pastries filled with red bean paste, fruit or jam.

This year, to celebrate the moon festival, someone special and I are eating Chinese food tonight. Last year, I didn't do anything to celebrate as I was just learning about the holiday.

I like this festival, I like the legend, I like gazing at the moon and thinking about my daughter, and I even found a Asian market in North Idaho that sells moon cakes! Haven't tried them yet, but saw them last year when I was out shopping for Chinese New Year goodies.

When munchkin is home, we'll eat Chinese food, read a story from this book, taste moon cakes, and make our own version of round moon cakes (I hear the real things are a bit of an acquired taste). We will also join in on the local Moon Festival/Mid-Autumn Festival activities.