{"id":7299,"date":"2019-09-11T10:37:48","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T02:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/?p=7299"},"modified":"2019-09-11T10:37:48","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T02:37:48","slug":"the-mid-autumn-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/learn-chinese-online\/the-mid-autumn-festival.html","title":{"rendered":"The Mid-Autumn Festival: A Famous Chinese Festival About the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration for Chinese people all over the world. It is also a public holiday in China. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the big three Chinese festivals, along with Chinese New Year <\/em>\u4e2d\u56fd\u65b0\u5e74\uff08<\/em>zh\u014dnggu\u00f3 x\u012bnni\u00e1n<\/em>\uff09<\/em>and the Winter Solstice Festival<\/em>\u51ac\u81f3\u8282\uff08<\/em>d\u014dngzh\u00ec ji\u00e9<\/em>\uff09<\/em>. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a harvest festival that occurs on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, somewhere near the time of the autumn equinox<\/em>\u79cb\u5206\uff08<\/em>qi\u016bf\u00e8n<\/em>\uff09<\/em>. It\u2019s clear that the moon is rounder that night compared to other nights. It usually falls between the second week of September and the second week of October. It is known as\u4e2d\u79cb\u8282\uff08<\/em>zh\u014dngqi\u016b ji\u00e9<\/em>\uff09<\/em> in Chinese.<\/p>\n

People in China have a holiday for Mid-Autumn Festival. They usually go back to their family homes. The family gathers together and enjoys the feeling of reunion, just like the round moon <\/em>\u5706\u6708\uff08<\/em>yu\u00e1nyu\u00e8<\/em>\uff09<\/em>or full moon<\/em>\u6ee1\u6708<\/em> \uff08<\/em>m\u01cenyu\u00e8<\/em>\uff09<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Legend of Mid-Autumn Festival<\/h2>\n

The most famous story is about Houyi<\/em>\u540e\u7fbf\uff08<\/em>H\u00f2u Y\u00ec<\/em>\uff09<\/em>, the Archer. It is believed that there was a time when the earth had ten suns that would burn all the crops, leaving nothing for people to eat. Houyi was an archer and decided to shoot down nine suns and leave just one. So he did and he became an instant hero. This story we called \u540e\u7fbf\u5c04\u65e5\uff08<\/em>h\u00f2uy\u00ec sh\u00e8 r\u00ec<\/em>\uff09<\/em>.<\/em>Houyi was married to Chang\u2019e<\/em>\u5ae6\u5a25\uff08<\/em>ch\u00e1ng’\u00e9<\/em>\uff09. He had many apprentices who wanted to learn hunting. As he came home, he saw the western queen mother, who in gratitude for helping humans with the suns, offered Houyi pills of immortality. As he gave the pill to the wife, she hid them in a purse so that no one would steal them from her. They decided to take them together on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month when the moon was round and bright, but a wicked man named Feng Meng overheard them and wanted the elixir for himself. In the end, he was not able to steal the pills. When he tried, Chang\u2019e swallowed the pills and slowly rose to the sky. She managed to grab to the moon and stay there as close as she could to her beloved husband. Houyi looked at the moon and cried out loud for Chang\u2019e. He noticed a shadow of a woman in the moon and started to run and run, trying to reach her, but the winds kept on bringing him back to earth. This is the story of the Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival.<\/p>\n

Mid-Autumn Festival Traditions, Customs and Activities<\/h2>\n

What do people do in the festival? There are different ways to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. The essentials are eating moon cakes<\/em>\u6708\u997c\uff08<\/em>yu\u00e8b\u01d0ng<\/em>\uff09<\/em> under the moonlight, lighting up lanterns<\/em>\u706f\u7b3c\uff08<\/em>d\u0113nglong<\/em>\uff09<\/em>and carrying them on the streets\uff0cand Fire Dragon dances<\/em>\u821e\u706b\u9f99\uff08<\/em>w\u01d4 hu<\/em>\u01d2<\/em>l\u00f3ng<\/em>\uff09<\/em>performed by troupes on the streets. Usually, families gather for a special dinner, and afterwards, they go outside to watch the festivities organized in the cities. There can be music, dances and the traditional Fire Dragon dances.<\/p>\n

The most important thing during the festival is to watch the moon <\/em>\u8d4f\u6708\uff08<\/em>sh\u01cengyu\u00e8<\/em>\uff09<\/em>and worship the moon<\/em>\u796d\u6708\uff08<\/em>j\u00ecyu\u00e8<\/em>\uff09<\/em>, eat moon cakes, and eat delicious food under the moon. At the same time, some food will be placed under the moon as a sacrifice to the moon and the gods in the sky, wishing that they can have a good life. Chinese people see in the roundness of moon cakes a symbol of reunion and happiness. Eating moon cakes will be regarded as the most important custom of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Since moon cakes are round and shaped like full moons in the sky, people eat moon cakes so they can get good blessings. Moon cakes have many fillings, like egg yolk<\/em>\u86cb\u9ec4\uff08<\/em>d\u00e0nhu\u00e1ng<\/em>\uff09<\/em>, lotus seed paste<\/em>\u83b2\u84c9\uff08<\/em>li\u00e1nr\u00f3ng<\/em>\uff09<\/em>, \u00a0sweetened\u00a0bean\u00a0paste\u00a0<\/em>\u8c46\u6c99\uff08<\/em>d\u00f2ush\u0101<\/em>\uff09<\/em>and so on. They all taste delicious.<\/p>\n

Mid-Autumn day is a Chinese traditional festival. It represents unity <\/em>\u56e2\u5706<\/em> \uff08<\/em>tu\u00e1n<\/em>yu\u00e1n<\/em>\uff09<\/em>and homesickness<\/em>\u4e61\u6101\uff08<\/em>xi\u0101ngch\u00f3u<\/em>\uff09<\/em>. On this occasion, Chinese families look forward to being with their families, sharing delicious food and enjoying the time spent together. At this festival, you must say it in Chinese\u201c<\/em>\u4e2d\u79cb\u8282\u5feb\u4e50<\/em>\u201d<\/em>\uff08<\/em> zh\u014dngqi\u016b ji\u00e9 ku\u00e0il\u00e8<\/em>\uff09\uff01<\/em>Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration for Chinese people all over the world. It is also a public holiday in China. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the big three Chinese festivals, along with Chinese New Year \u4e2d\u56fd\u65b0\u5e74\uff08zh\u014dnggu\u00f3 x\u012bnni\u00e1n\uff09and the Winter Solstice Festival\u51ac\u81f3\u8282\uff08d\u014dngzh\u00ec ji\u00e9\uff09. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a harvest festival that occurs on the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchchinese.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}