[2007-09-21] Happy mid-autumn festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival, the second important tradition festival in China only by the Spring Festival, is celebrated on the 15th day of the Chinese lunar August, when the moon is said to be at its brightest and fullest. This year the festival falls on September 25.The round shape of the full moon stands for the reunion in China, so Chinese people eat moon cakes and enjoy the Moon Fairy in the moon in the evening of the day.There is a legend explaining the tradition of eating moon cakes: In remote ancient times, the Earth once had 10 suns circling it. One day all 10 suns appeared at once, scorching the planet with their heat, it was thanks to a skillful archer named Hou Yi that the Earth was saved, he shot down all but one of the suns. As his reward, the Heavenly Queen Mother gave him the elixir of immortality. One day, when Hou Yi’s not at home, Chang-Er, his beautiful wife, ate the elixir by mistake and flied to the moon and thus became the Moon Fairy who there from lived in the palace in the moon alone. After finding a beautiful figure in the full moon who looked so much like his wife, Hou Yi made a kind of round cake to commemorate this wife.Nowadays, many new varieties of moon cakes have been developed to meet the taste of modern people, such as the ones with ice cream as the fillings.
