Chinese Celebrations

Chinese Moon Festival

Moon Festival celebrations, though still relatively new to the U.S., have been held throughout Asia for well over 1,000 years. This holiday is a time to reflect upon the bounty of the summer harvest, the fullness of the moon, and the myth of the immortal moon Goddess Chang E, who lives in the moon.

The Moon Festival is often compared to a sort of "Chinese Thanksgiving" because of its spirit of gratitude and its inclusion of abundant food — including the popular moon cakes. Moon cakes are flaky, round, semi-sweet pastries often filled with bean or lotus-seed paste and topped with a duck egg, echoing the shape of the full moon. Many millions of moon cakes are gifted around the time of the Moon Festival.


Origin of the Moon Festival

Along with the sun, the moon has long been an object of human curiosity and worship. "It is probable that sun and moon were early held to be deities or something like a God and that they were the first visible objects of worship," according to the book "Sketches of the History of Man." To the most ancient ancestors of the Chinese, the sun and the moon were considered the "chief objects" of expressing respect.

In ancient Asian mythology, there is a strong relationship between the moon and water. The moon is said to regulate reservoirs and supplies of water. There is a suggestion that the moon produces fertility and freshness in the soil. The moon's role in bountiful harvests is widely recognized during autumns around the world.

In Chinese celestial cosmology, the moon represents the female principle, or yin. During ancient autumn Moon Festivals, women took center stage because the moon is considered feminine. Only women took part in Moon Festival rituals on the night of the full moon. Altars would be set up in households, and when the full moon appeared, women would make offerings of incense, candles, fruit, flowers, and mooncakes.

The enduring legend of the Moon Goddess, Chang E reflects the feminine principle of yin, as opposed to the masculine principle of yang, which is symbolized by the sun.

The Legend of Chang E

No one is certain of all the details of the Chang E legend, but the story goes something like this:

Chang E was a beautiful young girl working in the Jade Emperor's palace in heaven, where immortals, good people and fairies lived. One day, she accidentally broke a precious porcelain jar. Angered, the Jade Emperor banished her to live on earth, where ordinary people lived. She could return to the Heaven, if she contributed a valuable service on earth.

Chang E was transformed into a member of a poor farming family. When she was 18, a young hunter named Hou Yi from another village spotted her, now a beautiful young woman. They became friends. One day, a strange phenomenon occurred -- 10 suns arose in the sky instead of one, blazing the earth. Hou Yi, an expert archer, stepped forward to try to save the earth. He successfully shot down nine of the suns, becoming an instant hero.

He eventually became king and married Chang E. But Hou Yi grew to become a tyrannical ruler. He sought immortality by ordering a drug be created to prolong his life. The drug in the form of a single pill was almost ready when Chang E came upon it. She either accidentally or purposely swallowed the pill. This angered King Hou Yi, who went after his wife. Trying to flee, she jumped out the window of a chamber at the top of the palace and, instead of falling she floated into the sky toward the moon.

King Hou Yi tried to shoot her down with arrows, but without success. Once on the moon, Chang E became a three-legged toad, as punishment from the Queen Mother, according to one version of the legend. Her companion, a rabbit, is constantly pounding the drug of immortality in a large mortar. The moon is also inhabited by a wood cutter who tries to cut down the cassia tree, giver of life. But as fast as he cuts into the tree, it heals itself, and he never makes any progress.

The Chinese use this image of the cassia tree to explain mortal life on earth -- the limbs are constantly being cut away by death, but new buds continually appear. Meanwhile, King Hou Yi ascended to the sun and built a palace. So Chang E and Hou Yi came to represent the yin and yang, the moon and the sun.

Moon Cakes have played a central role in Moon Festival traditions. Once, according to Chinese legend, moon cakes helped bring about a revolution. According to one Chinese folk tale, a Han Chinese rebel leader named Liu Fu Tong devised a scheme to anger the Han Chinese to rise up against the ruling Mongols to end the oppressive Yuan dynasty. He sought permission from Mongolian leaders to give gifts to friends as a symbolic gesture to honor the longevity of the Mongolian emperor. These gifts were round moon cakes.

Inside, Liu had his follower's place pieces of paper with the date the Han Chinese were to strike out in rebellion -- on the fifteenth night of the eighth month. Thus Liu got word to his people, who when they cut open the mooncakes, found the revolutionary message and set out to overthrow the Mongols, thus ending the Yuan dynasty.

Today, far from the exotic and heroic legends, Chinese communities all over the world make and consume moon cakes during the traditional autumn Moon Festival.