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The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is largely known in Chinese culture as the day that Chang'e flew to the moon. But, did you know that it is not only the Chinese that celebrate this lunar holiday! In fact, many countries celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival. These countries include: Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore.
What is it? The Moon Festival is a lunar festival that starts on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. So, it's usually around late September/early October. For this holiday, there is a large feast (similarly to American Thanksgiving) including mooncakes and fruit. There is also time spent with family, at times travel, and lantern lighting. Most of all, a large part of this holiday includes moon gazing- it is the Moon Festival after all! The holiday was birthed from an ancient myth.
The myth goes as follows: There was a man Hou-Yi, who shot down 9 out of 10 suns in the sky with an arrow. The suns were burning the people of earth. After his heroic act he was given the potion of immortality. Hou-Yi loved his wife Change'e very much, and did not want to take the potion of immortality and leave her mortal. So, he handed her the potion for safekeeping. One night, a man tried to steal the immortality potion. The only way to protect the potion from the wrong hands, was, for Chang'e to ingest the potion. Her husband told her to take the magic potion and she did. After, Chang'e flew to the moon with a white rabbit.
Hou-Yi saw a figure of a woman on the moon with a rabbit and so he made an offering to the moon. That offering is what we know today as mooncakes.
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