The Mid-autumn is my favorite Chinese festival. It always falls on the 15th day of August, but this year is on 29th September. “This wonderful tale is a depiction of a Chinese family coming together and preparing to celebrate the moon with a nighttime picnic that embraces their Chinese customs with glowing lanterns and includes traditional dishes, such as the moon cakes, pomelos, and tea.”(LIN 94) A few days before the festival, everyone in the family will help to make the house clean and beautiful. Lanterns will be hung in front of the house. On the evening there will be a big family dinner. People who work far away from their homes will try to come back for the festival. After dinner, people will light the lanterns which are usually red and round. Children will play with their own toy lanterns happily. Then they will sit together to enjoy looking at the moon, the moon is usually round and bright at night. People also can enjoy the moon while eating moon cakes which are the special food for this festival. There is the background about moon cakes:
The legend of the Han Chinese’s uprising against the ruling Mongols at the end to the Yuan dynasty (1280–1368 CE), in which the Han Chinese used traditional moon cakes to conceal the message that they were to rebel on
Wu 2
Mid-Autumn Day. (Yang 270)
This Festival is also a family holiday. The family members are very happy, because people can look back on the past and look forward to the future together under the beautiful moon. There also has many wonderful stories about Mid-autumn festival 's moon, I know a story is about love, Hou Yi and his wife Chang 'e were forced to separate, Hou Yi on the earth and Chang 'e on the moon. They only be allowed can meet once on the Mid-autumn, so that date is very important and precious to them. This story gives people have more expectation, I am a good example like the story. There is a long distance between me and my girlfriend. We met once
Cited: LIN, Grace. “Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.” Library Media Connection. Vol. 29 Issue 4: p94-94. Web. 30. 9. 2012. Yang, Lemei. “China’s Mid-Autumn Day.” Journal of Folklore Research. Vol. 43 Issue 3(2006): p270-270. Web. 30. 9. 2012.