chinese mid autumn festival philadelphia

#Chinese mid autumn festival philadelphia full#

Sometimes a cooked egg yolk can be found in the middle of the rich tasting dessert. For generations, moon cakes have been made with sweet fillings of nuts, mashed red beans, lotus-seed paste or Chinese dates, wrapped in a pastry. Things are much tamer now, and the moon cakes are given to friends and relatives during the festival. The secret messages were smuggled to the revolutionists. Many years ago in the 14th Century, a revolt against the Mongols developed, and messages of the revolution were written on paper, then baked into the cakes. Moon cakes are also an important part of this festivities. Here are a few pictures of the typical moon cake.

#Chinese mid autumn festival philadelphia full#

The Chinese eat the moon cake at night with the full moon in the sky. The moon cake is the food for the Moon Festival. Hope the Moon Festival will bring you happiness. A great number of poetry has been devoted to this romantic festival. Even for a couple who can't be together, they can still enjoy the night by watching the moon at the same time so it seems that they are together at that hour. Lovers spend such a romatic night together tasting the delicious moon cake with some wine while watching the full moon. A perfect night for the festival is if it is a quiet night without a silk of cloud and with a little mild breeze from the sea. The Moon Festival is also a romantic one. Whenever the festival sets in, people will look up at the full silver moon, drinking wine to celebrate their happy life or thinking of their relatives and friends far from home, and extending all of their best wishes to them. The custom of playing under the moon is not so popular as it used to be nowadays, but it is not less popular to enjoy the bright silver moon. It is said to stand under a magical cassia tree on the moon making pills of immortality. Taoism adopted the rabbit in the moon along with many other concepts that originated in Buddhism: they called it the Jade Rabbit. The concept of a 'moon rabbit' was introduced to China with Indian Buddhist influence. Together with the celebration there appear some special customs in different parts of the country, such as burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting lanterns on towers and fire dragon dances. During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), houses and gardens were decorated with numerous lanterns and the sound of gongs and drums filled the air. When it becomes dark, they look up at the full silver moon or go sightseeing on lakes to celebrate the festival. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 A.D.), however, people send round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. It becomes very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty(618-907 A.D.) that people enjoy and worship the full moon. The earliest record is from Han dynasty emperor Wu Di (156-87 BC), who initiated celebrations lasting three days including banquets and 'viewing the moon'. The origins of the Mid-Autumn Festival are very unclear. Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the West, the Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese. Chinese culture is deeply imbedded in traditional festivals. It's also known as the Mid-autumn Festival. Then, as the Chinese say 'The moon is perfectly round'. On this day the moon is at its greatest distance from the earth.

Hou Yi, in hope of reunion, presented the mooncakes on every 15th day of the 8th lunar month since then.The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month.

As she didn’t want to leave her husband, she flew to the moon, the closest place to the earth in the heaven. Unhelpfully, Chang E ate the elixir, became an immortal and uncontrollably left the earth for the heaven. One a 15th day of the 8th lunar month when Hou Yi went out hunting, that follower sneaked into Hou Yi and Cheng E’s home and forced Chang E to handed over the elixir. Unfortunately, one of Hou Yi’s followers got to know it. But he would not like become immortal alone and left his wife to live in the heaven, so he gave the elixir to Chang E to keep it well. The legend goes like this:Ĭhang E’s husband, Hou Yi was rewarded the elixir of immortality for shooting down the extra nine suns which tortured people a lot. The most famous one is the ‘ Chang E Flying to the Moon'. As the Mid-Autumn Festival was originally derived from the worship of the moon god, many interesting stories and legends are told and spread among folklore explaining the purpose of the worship.