(Mid-Autumn Festival)





The Mid - Autumn Festival is also commonly called the Lantern Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese calendar. This is the day when the moon is at its brightest. Lanterns in different shapes and colours are paraded in honour of the Moon Goddess.

According to legend, there was a cruel emperor. He was horrible to everyone, even to the empress. The emperor wanted to live forever. He ordered a physician to make him a potion so that he could live forever. The kind empress knew that the emperor was cruel and did not want the people to suffer from his tyrannical rule forever. When the potion was ready, the empress took the potion. After she swallowed the potion she flew to the moon and became the moon Goddess.

People eat Mooncakes to celebrate this festival. During the Yuan dynasty (1260 A.D. - 1368 A.D.) China was under Mongolian rule. The majority of Chinese people were Han people who did not like the Mongolians. They wanted to overthrow the Mongolians but they were always under close watch, so it was difficult to make plans and pass on ideas.

They organized an uprising by hiding secret messages inside the Mooncakes, detailing the time and date of the uprising. The Mooncakes were ditributed to many people over China. The uprising was a success.

Thus, it became a tradition to eat Mooncakes during this festival. The custom today is to give and receive Mooncakes from family members and friends.

The American Chinese uesd the idea of the secret message inside Mooncakes to develop Fortune Cookies. But the messages in Fortune Cookies are proverbs and good luck messages.