Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival
Appreciating the Moon
Appreciating the moon has been a custom since Tang Dynasty. Not only the rich merchants and officials but also the common citizens liked appreciating the moon together at that time. The rich merchants and officials held big parties in their big courts. They drank and appreciated the bright moon. Music and dances are also indispensable. The common citizens just prayed to the moon for a good harvest.
Nowadays, people also like appreciating the moon on Mid-Autumn Festival in China. Chinese Family members have dinner together in the evening of Mid-Autumn Festival. After the dinner, they may talk about their work, the children, and their future plans. Sometimes, people go to park to see the decorations which were made only for the Festival.
Eating Moon Cakes
At the end of Yuan Dynasty (a dynasty built by the Mongols), Han people’s army wanted to overthrow the rule of Mongols so they planed an uprising but they had no way to inform every Han people who wanted to join them the time of the uprising without being discovered by the Mongols. One day, the military counselor of Han people’s army Liu Bowen thought out a stratagem related to moon cakes. On one hand, Liu Bowen asked his soldiers to spread the rumor that there would be a serious disease in winter and eating moon cakes was the only way to cure the disease; on the other hand, he asked soldiers to write "uprising, at the night of Mid-autumn Festival" on papers and put them into moon cakes then sell them to common Han people. When the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival came the huge uprising broke out. From then on, people eat moon cakes on every Mid-Autumn Festival to commemorate the uprising.
Nowadays, people also like appreciating the moon on Autumn Moon Festival. Family members have dinner together in the evening of the Festival.
Making Chinese Mid-Autumn Lanterns
Mid-Autumn lanterns are not as colorful as the ones in Lantern Festival. There is no big lantern party during Mid-Autumn Festival but the children like making colorful lanterns very much. They make lanterns of different shapes and let them float on the rivers. They won’t leave the riversides until the light of the lanterns disappears. Sometimes, they make the Hung Ming lantern which can fly because the burning candles heat the air in the lantern. The lantern rises with the heated air.
Mid-Autumn Festival Story: Want to know how the ancient Chinese people say about the Festival? Read the legend of Chang'e and Hou Yi, Wu Gang and the Cherry Bay, and The Jade Rabbit.
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