中秋节快乐~~

中秋节快乐~~ 

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all our family & friends!

The festival celebrates three fundamental concepts which are closely tied to one another:

• gathering, such as family and friends coming together, or harvesting crops
• thanksgiving, to give thanks for the harvest, or for harmonious unions
• praying (asking for conceptual or material satisfaction), such as for babies, a spouse, beauty, longevity, or for a good future

Even till date, the Mid-autumn festival is well celebrated by the Chinese. Many families in Singapore gather together to celebrate this special day. Sharing stories about their life. The elders will share stories about how they celebrated this special festival when they were a kid! How lanterns used to be different from the lanterns we see in the market today...

There are many folktales surrounding the Mid-Autumn Festival.  

Here is a popular version among Chinese children:

A long time ago in China there were ten suns in the sky.  Because of this it was very hot!  The blazing suns dried up the rivers and there was a serious drought.  People were running out of water to drink and the crops in the rice fields were withering.  

A famous archer, Hòu yì, was summoned to shoot down 9 of the suns in the sky.  He did it successfully and was rewarded a “pill of the immortality.” Hòu yì went home and gave the precious pill to his wife, Cháng’é, for safekeeping.  

A visitor of the archer’s, however, heard about this pill and wanted to steal it from his wife.  As the visitor was about to steal the pill from her Cháng é swallowed it.  After she took the pill Cháng é felt lighter and lighter.  Then she started to float.  She flew all the way to the moon.  

When Cháng é got to the moon she coughed up the pill and the pill became a rabbit.  The rabbit was the only companion Cháng é- the Moon Fairy- had on the moon and is named the “Jade Rabbit.”

The legend behind mooncakes is an interesting tale. 

Supposedly, during the Tang Dynasty (1271-1368), Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋), a leader of the Han army, and his adviser Liu Bowen (劉伯溫), devised a plan to overthrow the ruling Mongol government. 

In order to covertly recruit the Han people for the rebellion, soldiers spread a rumor that the only way to protect themselves from a deadly disease come winter was to eat a mooncake... something Mongols didn't consume. 

Cleverly hidden inside each mooncake was a paper message about the revolt that would occur during the Mid-Autumn Festival. This secret plot successfully led to the Mongol government being overthrown. 

There are so many other stories~! Which have you hear? 

Share your stories... or come up with your every own story and share it with us!!

*photo & text credited to respective owners online.*