Transcript Mid-Autumn Festival 27 September 2015 Zhōng qiū jié The Mid-Autumn Festival is also called The Moon Festival.

Mid-Autumn Festival
27 September 2015
Zhōng qiū jié
The Mid-Autumn Festival
is also called
The Moon Festival.
Like Chinese New Year, it is a festival in the
traditional Chinese calendar, also called the
Farmers’ Calendar, and is based on the phases
of the moon, not the movement of the sun.
This means it falls on a
different day each year, but
always the 15th day of the
8th lunar month.
This year it falls on
27 September.
It is probably the oldest festival in the
Chinese calendar, and the character
for ‘moon’ is one of the oldest
characters there is. It has been found
on oracle bones from 1200 BC in the
Shang Dynasty, when sacrifices were
made to the moon.
The most famous story connected to the
Mid-Autumn Festival is about the great
archer Hòu Yì, who shot down the nine
suns, and his love for Cháng É, who
became the moon goddess.
Chinese people do not believe there is a
man in the moon. They see a magic rabbit
who keeps the goddess Cháng É company.
Food is important in all Chinese festivals.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is famous for
mooncakes, pastries with sweet or
savoury fillings, often with an egg yolk in
the middle to represent the moon.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is
a national holiday in China.
Families get together to have dinner and
admire the moon, often visiting famous scenic
spots such as West Lake in Hángzhōu.
The stone moon lanterns on West Lake are so
famous they feature on the one yuán banknote.
When the lanterns are lit, you are said to see 21 moons:
nine from the three holes in each of the three lanterns, their
reflections in the lake, the real moon, its reflection and the
moon in your loved one’s heart!
You might even be inspired to write a
poem about the moon, like this one
written by Sū Shì 900 years ago:
Bright moon, when were you born?
Cup in hand I ask the dark blue sky.
I do not even know what year it is tonight
In the heavenly palaces on high,
But I long to fly on the wind amongst them.
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
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