The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is one of the most important Chinese holidays. It falls on the 15th of August on the lunar calendar when the moon is supposed to be the roundest and brightest during the month. This year it falls on September 22 on the solar (Western) calendar. With a history of more than 3,000 years, the holiday is initiated to celebrate the harvest of the year. It is a time for family reunion. Typical celebrations include having a big family dinner (for which friends may also be invited), eating moon cakes (月饼), and enjoying the full moon with one’s family in an open area such as the courtyard or balcony. For people who are not able to see their family on the Moon Festival, enjoying the moon is especially important because they believe that by enjoying the same bright, full moon, they can actually see and communicate with each other.

Eating moon cakes is a major part of the celebration. A moon cake is a round cookie (shaped like the moon) with fillings such as sugar, bean powder, dates, egg yoke, and walnuts mixed together. Like other types of Chinese food, there are different styles of moon cake (such as the Beijing style, the Cantonese style, etc.), each with a unique flavor. Legend has it that eating moon cakes dates back to the Yuan Dynasty when Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, led a rebellion against the Yuan government. On the eve of the Moon Festival, Zhu sent to his followers moon cakes with a message inside that asked them to start the rebellion the next day. The moon cake therefore played an important role in the overthrowing of the Yuan Dynasty.

Another well-known legend associated with the Moon Festival is the story of Chang’e (嫦娥). It is said that a long time ago, there used to be 10 suns which made the world intolerably hot. A skilled archer called Hou Yi (后羿) shot nine of them with only one left and the weather became normal thereafter. To reward Hou Yi’s achievement, a goddess gave him an elixir of life. Hou Yi was told that if he drank it, he would be able to go to the Heaven and become immortal. But he loved his wife, Chang’e (嫦娥), so much and did not want to drink the elixir, leaving her alone in the earthly world. So he gave the elixir to Chang’e and asked her to keep it. Peng Meng, a vicious apprentice of Hou Yi, overheard the secret. One day, Peng Meng murdered Hou Yi while they were hunting together, and then he forced Chang’e to give him the elixir. But Chang’e drank it and immediately after that, she rose to the moon and has lived there since.