The Legend Behind the Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival, or 中秋節 (zhōng qiū jié), is one of the most well-known traditional Chinese festivals, and is considered the second most important event behind the Spring Festival (Lunar New Year). The celebration occurs on the 15th day of the 8th moon on the Chinese Lunar Calendar. This year, it takes place on September 29, 2023.
There are many legends associated with Mid-Autumn Festival, but the most well-known is that of the goddess Chang’e 嫦娥 and her husband Hou Yi 后羿. A long time ago, there were ten sun-birds in the sky. Normally, they would take turns flying up into the sky every day so that there would only be one sun. But one day, the sun-birds got tired of this arrangement and decided to all fly up into the sky together. The heat from all ten suns led to a massive drought, leading to widespread famine. The Emperor of China ordered the archer Hou Yi to shoot down nine of the suns.
Having succeeded at his mission, Hou Yi was given an elixir of immortality in return. However, this elixir was only for one person, and since Hou Yi had his beautiful and loving wife Chang’e who he did not want to be separated from, he decided to store the elixir away for safekeeping. Unfortunately, although Hou Yi had great skills as an archer, he was not great at choosing his students.
One day while Hou Yi was away, his evil disciple Feng Meng broke into his home to try and steal the elixir. To prevent Feng Meng from successfully taking the elixir, Chang’e had no choice but to drink the elixir. The moment she drank it, she began flying higher and higher until she landed on the moon and became immortal. Saddened by this, Hou Yi sat outside under the moon and put out food that Chang’e loved to eat in hopes that she would come back to him. Some say that if you look hard enough at the moon, you can see the figure of Chang’e thinking about her husband Hou Yi.
Today, people celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival by gathering together with family for a large meal, making lanterns, and eating mooncakes (月餅). Mooncakes come in a variety of flavors. Traditionally, they consist of rich fillings such as egg yolks, bean paste, and lotus seed paste surrounded by thick pastry crusts. Nowadays, mooncakes have expanded to include more non-traditional flavors such as coffee, fruit, and matcha, as well as snowskin mooncakes which are normally eaten cold with a mochi ice cream-like texture.
Looking for mooncakes last minute?
Here are some modern takes on the legend!
Want to make your own mooncakes?
Modern Asian Baking at Home by Kat Lieu
Read her feature the May/June 2023 issue!
