Zhong Qiu Jie (Mid-Autumn Festival)
Zhong Qiu Jie, which is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. Because of its association with moocakes and lighted lanterns, this festival is also called the Mooncake or Lantern Festival.
Zhong Qiu Jie is a joyous celebration and the eighth month is traditionally a popular month for marriages. Like the Chinese New Year, it is a time for family gatherings: it is an occasion for family members to get together over mooncakes and fruits. The full moon is especially bright and Zhong Qiu Jie is traditionally associated with shang yue or "moon appreciation" parties. Zhong Qiu Jie probably began as a harvest festival. In the Chinese agrarian community the harvesting season is a period for celebration and rejoicing. The festival was later given a mythological flavour with legends of Chang-E, the beautiful lady in the moon.
According to Chinese mythology the earth once had 10 suns circling over it, each taking its turn to illuminate and bring warmth to the world. But one day all 10 suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved when a strong archer Hou Yi, succeeded in shooting down 9 of the suns. Yi stole the elixir of life but to save the people from his tyrannical rule his wife Chang-E drank it. She found herself floating to the moon. Thus started the legend of the lady in the moon, to whom young Chinese girls would pray at the Mid-Autumn Festival.
In the 14th century the eating of mooncakes at Zhong Qiu Jie was given a new significance. The story goes that when Zhu Yuan Zhang was plotting to overthrow the Yuan dynasty started by the Mongolians, the rebels hid their messages in the mid-Autumn mooncakes.
Zhu's efforts to oust the "barbarians" and return control of the country to the Han people succeeded, and he became the first emperor of the Ming dynasty. Although Han rule was terminated in the 17th century by the Manchus, who started the Qing dynasty, Zhong Qiu Jie continues to be a commemoration of the overthrow of the Mongolians by Han people.
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