Mid-Autumn's Festival (中秋节)

The 8th full moon is the Autumn festival in China — October 6th this year. A celebration after the harvesting season is common in many cultures. China, a pioneer in agriculture, has developed rich and complicated traditions for this festival. It begins with few folk lores. The one I adapted for my kids is a tragic love story.

Long long time ago, there were 10 suns in the sky. It was so scorching hot that crops could not grow and people languished. A young man, HouYi (后羿), took his bow and arrows, climbed up to a high mountain, and demanded improvements. When the sun laughed and refused, HouYi shot them down to the sea one by one. At the end, he gave the last sun strict orders to rise and set regularly. Days and nights became regular and everyone was happy. People were so grateful, they made HouYi their king. Soon, HouYi married this beautiful woman ChangEr (嫦娥). They lived happily in the palace.

Years went by and HouYi became a tyrant and a bad king. People suffered from his bad governance as much as they did from the 10 suns. ChangEr tried to influence HouYi to no avail. Most horribly, HouYi learned the existence of elixir of life. He sent the rabbit. It ran westward for long, long time and found it.

YouYi had a grand party to celebrate his imminent immortality. ChangEr stayed behind and understood she is the people's only hope. After HouYi fell asleep drunk. She stole and drank the elixir. Immediately, she floated to the sky and ended up on the moon. The rabbit sipped from the bottle and followed her.

ChangEr becomes the loneliest being ever. She lives forever with only rabbit as her company.

To this date, if you watch closely, you can see the beautiful ChangEr in the moon. Particularly on this 8th full moon of the year, the anniversary of her ascension.

Poet SU Shi (苏轼) wrote a famous poem on this story. I will not do justice translating it.