Celebrating Chinese Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival

Some of you may know that every year, around a certain time, Asian markets start selling Moon Cakes. Some of you may even know that it's to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, or more simply known as Moon Festival. Ever wonder what the story behind this odd holiday is? If you're curious and love a good folk story, read on!

Like any good folk story, there are a few different versions of it. This is in general, the simplest and most common (in my opinion) version.

There once was a great archer named Hou-Yi. He had a beautiful and lovely wife named Chang-Er. One day, the emperor, having heard of Hou-Yi's great archery skills, summoned his help. At that time, there were 10 suns in the sky, and one day they all aligned, and were baking the Earth, threatening all life. The emperor asked that Hou-Yi use his unbeatable archery skills to shoot down all but one sun.

Hou-Yi set out to accomplish this, and was very successful, shooting down 9 suns and leaving just one, thus saving the planet. To reward him, the emperor gave him a magic pill that would give him eternal life. But told Hou-Yi that he would have to take a whole year to fast and meditate to get himself ready before taking the pill. Hou-Yi went home and hid the pill under his pillow.

One day, while Hou-Yi was out answering the emperor's summon again, Chang-Er found the pill and swallowed it. She immediately floated off to the moon, where she was met by the hare, who lives on the moon. Once there, Chang-Er coughed up part of the pill. Heartbroken, Hou-Yi ordered the bunny to take that part of the pill and try to replicate it so that the couple can be joined together. To this day, if one looks closely at the moon, one can see the bunny, stomping medicine, trying to replicate the pill.

The Moon Festival is the only day of the year that Hou-Yi and his wife, Chang-Er can be reunited. That is why that is the one day of the year which the moon shines the brightest.

There are different versions of this story out there, especially in Vietnamese and Korean cultures. But this is the most popular one among the Chinese. Have some moon cake, and have a Happy Moon Festival!