Mid-Autumn Festival also called as Moon cake Festival or Lantern Festival, it fall on the 15th day of the 8th lunar calendar (Chinese calendar) which it full moon night, it usually fall on September in our calendar. I sure every know what should do in this month, Yes that right eat moon cake and play lantern, kid love this festival, they like to walk along with friend during the night at the park together with the lantern holding on their hand. While parent will enjoy the moon cake and serve it with Chinese tea.
Well do you know how moon cake coming from? Moon cakes were used stating with Ming Dynasty revolutionaries. On that dynasty there is a war between china with Mongolian, the Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋) and his advisor Liu Bowen (劉伯溫) putting a letter inside a cake and distribute it to it backup soldier, and they planning to ambush Mongolian at the full moon, they spread out the cake so the Mongolian will not know what there are try to do. At last they manage to take down the Mongolian.
According to the old folk, there is a lady name Chang'e 嫦娥, Wu Kang 吴刚 and a Jade Rabbit玉兔 live on the moon, but this langandary been break by USA when they sent people to moon and see nothing at there.
Beside that there is a lot of story about this Festival, from example the Houyi (后羿) and Chang'e’s （嫦娥）story but there is a lot of vision on this story. Never mind I will pick up my favorite vision. Chang'e and Houyi were immortals living in heaven. One day, the ten sons of the Jade Emperor transformed into ten suns, causing the earth to scorch. Having failed to order his sons to stop ruining the earth, the Jade Emperor summoned Houyi for help. Houyi, using his legendary archery skills, shot down nine of the sons, but spared one son to be the sun. The Jade Emperor was obviously displeased with Houyi’s solution to save the earth. As punishment, he banished Houyi and Chang'e to live as mere mortals on earth.
Seeing that Chang'e felt extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Houyi decided to journey on a long, perilous quest to find the pill of immortality so that the couple could be
immortals again. At the end of his quest, he met the Queen Mother of the West, who agreed to give him the pill, but warned him that each person would only need half a pill to regain immortality.
Houyi brought the pill home and stored it in a case. He warned Chang'e not to open the case, and then left home for a while. Like Pandora in Greek mythology, Chang'e became curious. She opened up the case and found the pill, just as Houyi was returning home. Nervous that Houyi would catch her, discovering the contents of the case, she accidentally swallowed the entire pill, and started to float into the sky because of the overdose. Although Houyi wanted to shoot her in order to prevent her from floating further, he could not bear to aim the arrow at her. Chang'e kept on floating until she landed on the moon.
While she became lonely on the moon without her husband, she did have company. A jade rabbit, who manufactured elixirs, also lived on the moon. THE END
Now talk about t
he story of Jade Rabbit 玉兔who manufactured elixirs for Chang’e. Old folk say you may find that the dark areas to the top of the full moon may be construed as the figure of a rabbit. The animal's ears point to the upper right, while at the left are two large circular areas, representing its head and body. In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men, and begged for food from a fox, a monkey, and a hare. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the hare, empty-handed, jumped into a blazing fire to offer his own flesh instead. The sages were so touched by the hare's sacrifice and act of kindness that they let him live in the Moon Palace, where he became the "Jade Rabbit". THE END
Well there are more story on this festival, there is too much vision and no one know which one is true. So enjoy you Moon Cake festival and your moon cake too.
Beside that there is a lot of story about this Festival, from example the Houyi (后羿) and Chang'e’s （嫦娥）story but there is a lot of vision on this story. Never mind I will pick up my favorite vision. Chang'e and Houyi were immortals living in heaven. One day, the ten sons of the Jade Emperor transformed into ten suns, causing the earth to scorch. Having failed to order his sons to stop ruining the earth, the Jade Emperor summoned Houyi for help. Houyi, using his legendary archery skills, shot down nine of the sons, but spared one son to be the sun. The Jade Emperor was obviously displeased with Houyi’s solution to save the earth. As punishment, he banished Houyi and Chang'e to live as mere mortals on earth.
Seeing that Chang'e felt extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Houyi decided to journey on a long, perilous quest to find the pill of immortality so that the couple could be 
immortals again. At the end of his quest, he met the Queen Mother of the West, who agreed to give him the pill, but warned him that each person would only need half a pill to regain immortality.
Houyi brought the pill home and stored it in a case. He warned Chang'e not to open the case, and then left home for a while. Like Pandora in Greek mythology, Chang'e became curious. She opened up the case and found the pill, just as Houyi was returning home. Nervous that Houyi would catch her, discovering the contents of the case, she accidentally swallowed the entire pill, and started to float into the sky because of the overdose. Although Houyi wanted to shoot her in order to prevent her from floating further, he could not bear to aim the arrow at her. Chang'e kept on floating until she landed on the moon.
While she became lonely on the moon without her husband, she did have company. A jade rabbit, who manufactured elixirs, also lived on the moon. THE END
Now talk about t
he story of Jade Rabbit 玉兔who manufactured elixirs for Chang’e. Old folk say you may find that the dark areas to the top of the full moon may be construed as the figure of a rabbit. The animal's ears point to the upper right, while at the left are two large circular areas, representing its head and body. In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men, and begged for food from a fox, a monkey, and a hare. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the hare, empty-handed, jumped into a blazing fire to offer his own flesh instead. The sages were so touched by the hare's sacrifice and act of kindness that they let him live in the Moon Palace, where he became the "Jade Rabbit". THE END
Well there are more story on this festival, there is too much vision and no one know which one is true. So enjoy you Moon Cake festival and your moon cake too.
No comments:
Post a Comment