Mid-Autumn Festival - Stories and Traditions

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2017-10-03 23:51

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As we said yesterday in the Tech Hub (September Week 4), we are having holidays here within our team. But which holiday are we all celebrating?

On October 4th, we have an important traditional Chinese festival coming --- Mid-Autumn Festival, or known as the Moon Festival.

Judging by the name 'Moon Festival', we could tell that this festival has something to do with the moon. In Chinese lunar calendar, the moon becomes full around 15th of every lunar month. Because the festival is calculated by lunar calendar, so the exact date is changing every year. This year it falls on October 4th, 2017.

The Moon Festival usually takes place in October, which is also harvest time for farmers. In ancient times, people would worship the moon by placing fruits, cooked meat and liquor on a table with lit incense and candles and kneeing under the moon. Nowadays these traditions have become simpler and people would normally celebrate this day in their own household by having a big meal with the whole family. Therefore it is also time for family reunion to celebrate the harvest of the year and enjoy an abundant meal. The most important activity is to enjoy the beautiful sight of a full moon. People enjoy fresh fruits, food, and most of all, the Moon Cake --- a round-shaped pastry which is made of flour and various kind of stuffings. The cake is usually round-shaped, this is to make it more festive as it resembles the shape of a full moon.

 
   

(Images of MEIZU mooncake gift pack for all staff)

In some degree, the Moon Festival resembles Thanksgiving because they both celebrate harvest, and they both call for family reunion, and they both have their own holiday food --- turkey and moon cake!

In a lot Moon Festival-related images you would often see rabbit (some say it's haze, judging by the time this festival was originated). The rabbit (let's go with rabbit for now ) belongs to a beautiful goddss named Chang'E (pronounced as /chaŋ/ /ɛ:/), who was originally an ordinary human being until she ate elixir to protect her heroic husband Hou Yi (/həʊ/ /yi:/), who saved millions of human beings by shooting down 9 extra suns on the sky. It was said that after Chang'E drank the elixir, she became weightless and flown to the sky, however, she was so scared to be ascended to the sky that she grabbed her pet rabbit. Therefore this rabbit accompanied her to the sky, settled down on the Moon, and became a part of her mythology. Therefore when we enjoy the full moon's splendid sight, we always imagine the rabbit is bouncing on the moon, living a happy life. That's why there would always be rabbit images in the Moon Festival pictures.

For a meaningful holiday such as the Moon Festival, our designer has made a beautiful wallpaper for this holiday. The wallpaper looks like the banner image on the thread, which also contains cartoon rabbits. The wallpaper file has been attached to this thread.
 




Do you have similar festivals in your cultures? Comment and tell us your interesting festivals related to the moon to earn 10 gold!
Have  a nice Moon Festival !
 






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