{"id":17536,"date":"2020-01-04T12:39:02","date_gmt":"2020-01-04T12:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-culture\/the-mid-autumn-festival-zhong-qiu-jie\/"},"modified":"2020-01-04T12:39:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-04T12:39:02","slug":"the-mid-autumn-festival-zhong-qiu-jie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/de\/the-mid-autumn-festival-zhong-qiu-jie\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mid-Autumn Festival \u4e2d\u79cb\u8282"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tThe Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the traditional and popupar Chinese festivals, is held on 15th day of eighth month in lunar month. This festival is to commemorate the Chang E<\/strong> (\u5ae6\u5a25 Cháng'é). It's a fairy maiden in Chinese ancient legend. The moon on this day is extremely around so it is a symbol of reunion, people also call Mid-Autumn Festival “Reunion Day”.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\tOrigin<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tThe Mid-Autumn Festival<\/strong>(\u4e2d\u79cb\u8282 Zh\u014dngqi\u016b jié)is a conventional festivity for both the Han<\/strong>(\u6c49 hàn) and minority nationalities. The custom of worshipping the moon can be traced back to the ancient Xia and Shang Dynasties. In the Zhou Dynasty<\/strong>(\u5468\u671d Zh\u014ducháo), people hold ceremonies to greet winter and worship the moon every time the Mid-Autumn Festival sets in. It gets really prevalent in the Tang Dynasty that people enjoy and worship the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty, therefore, individuals send round moon cakes to their friends and relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of household reunion. When it gets dark, they search up in the complete silver moon or go sightseeing on lakes to celebrate the festival. Ever since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration gets unprecedented popular. Together with all the celebration there seem some particular customs in diverse elements in the nation, like burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting lanterns on towers and fire dragon dances. Nonetheless, the custom of playing under the moon is just not so popular as it was once presently, nevertheless it isn't significantly less common to enjoy the brilliant silver moon. Whenever the festival sets in, people will look up on the full silver moon, consuming wine to celebrate their satisfied daily life or thinking of their relatives and buddies far from property, and extending all of their best wishes to them.<\/p>\n

\tEating mooncake<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tOn the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, the moon is round and the Chinese people mark their Moon (or Mid-autumn) Festival. The round shape to Chinese means family reunion. Therefore the Moon Festival is a holiday for members of a family to get together wherever it is possible.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\tOn that day sons and daughters will bring their family members back to their parents' house for a reunion. Sometimes people who have already settled overseas will come back to visit their parents on that day.<\/p>\n

\tOn the Moon Festival, people eat moon cakes, a kind of cookie with fillings of sugar, fat, sesame, walnut, the yoke of preserved eggs, ham or other material. In Chinese fairy tales, there live on the moon the fairy Chang E, a wood cutter named Wu Gang<\/strong>(\u5434\u521a Wú G\u0101ng) and a jade rabbit which is Chang E's pet. In the old days, people paid respect to the fairy Chang E and her pet the jade rabbit.
\tThe custom of paying homage to the fairy and rabbit is gone, but the moon cakes are showing improvement every year. There are hundreds of varieties of moon cakes on sale a month before the arrival of the Moon Festival this year. Some moon cakes are of very high quality and very delicious. An overseas tourist is advised not to miss it if he or she happens to be in China during the Moon Festival.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\tPoems on Moon and Home<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tThe Mid-Autumn Moon
\tby Li Qiao<\/strong>(\u674e\u5ce4 L\u01d0 Qiáo)
\tA full moon hangs high in the chilly sky,
\tAll say it's the same everywhere, round and bright.
\tBut how can one be sure thousands of li away
\tWind and perhaps rain may not be marring the night?<\/p>\n

\tThe Yo-Mei Mountain Moon
\tby Li Bai<\/strong>(\u674e\u767d L\u01d0 Bái)
\tThe autumn moon is half round above the Yo-mei Mountain;
\tThe pale light falls in and flows with the water of the Ping-chiang River.
\tTonight I leave Ching-chi of limpid stream for the three Canyons.
\tAnd glide down past Yu-chow, thinking of you whom I can not see<\/p>\n

\tOn this day, many poets draw their inspiration from this festival.<\/p>\n