The past weekend was a holiday, celebrating the Chinese Moon Festival, now less romantically called the Mid-Autumn Festival. I missed it last year, having arrived in mid-October, so for Aunt Kristel and I, it was our first time to see the festival. It was a busy weekend, because the students had time off school, so many of them called and invited us to their homes to meet their parents, and have dinner. We also ate many many mooncakes! You can see my mooncake in the picture! Aunt Kristel has copied some information about the history of the festival here, so have a look!

In China and many other Asian countries people celebrate the Harvest Moon on the 15th day of the eighth month of their lunar calendar. The date in the Western calendar changes yearly. This year, it falls on September 14, 2008.
The Harvest Moon or Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhong Qiu Jie) is a day of family reunions much like a Western Thanksgiving. Chinese people believe that on that day, the moon is the roundest and brightest signaling a time of completeness and abundance. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, children are delighted to stay up past midnight, carrying colourful lanterns into the wee hours as families take to the streets to moon-gaze.
It is also a romantic night for lovers, who sit holding hands on hilltops, riverbanks and park benches, watching the brightest moon of the year!
The festival dates back to the Tang dynasty in 618 A.D., and as with many celebrations in China there are old stories closely associated with it.

The Legend of the Princess Chang Er

It's said that in the old old days, the earth once had ten suns circling over it. Each day the suns' mother took one sun to light up the earth. But one day all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The Emperor of Heaven ordered a strong archer Hou Yi to save the earth. He succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns. One day, Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However his beautiful wife Chang Er drank the elixir of life in order to save the people from her husband's tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating and flew to the moon. Hou Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he didn't shoot down the moon.
Another version of the story is that Hou Yi built a beautiful jade palace for the Goddess of the Western Heaven. The Goddess was very happy and she gave Hou Yi a special pill that contained elixir of life and he could use it after he had accomplished certain things. However, Chang Er took it without telling her husband. The Goddess of the Western Heaven was very angry and Chang Er was sent to the moon forever.