Mid-Autumn Festival Origin

Lunar Augutst 15 each year is the traditional Mid-autumn Festival. This period of time is the middle autumn of each autumn of the year, so it is called mid-autumn. In our lunar calendar, one year is divided into four seasons. Each season includes three periods known as Meng, Zhong and Ji, so mid-autumn is also called Zhong autumn. The full moon on the night of lunar August 15 is much brighter and clearer than any other time, which is known as "Moon evening" or "August Festival".

This evening, people always look up to the clear and round moon as bright as jade high in the vast and enchanting sky, with the white and soft light everywhere in heaven and world. It naturally makes people to look forward to family reunion. And in particular the soft light set off an tack of intense feeling of homesickness deep inside. Therefore, this festival is also known as "Reunion Festival".

The Mid-autumn Festival has a long history just like other traditional festivala that were slowly developed. In our ancient folk appeared a practice custom named Qiu Mu Xi Yue, which means worshiping goddess of the moon at the late end of autumn. Our ancient emperors had the strict ritual that they would honored the god of the sun in spring and worshiped the goddess of the moon in autumn. The word mid-autumn was found in the record appearing in the Zhou Li or Zhou Ritual as early as the Zhou Dynasty. In Zhou period, Ying Han or welcoming the coming winter months and Ji Yue or venerating the goddess of the moon were both held when the Mid-autumn nights came here.

A large incense table was set up in the courtyard with many offerings on it such as the mooncakes, watermelon, apples, dates, plums, grapes and something like these. Among them were definitely included the mooncakes and watermelon. Besides, watermelon must have been cut into lotus-like shapes. In the moonlight, the statue of the moon would be placed in the direction of the bright moon with high candles and incenses burning, and the whole family worshiped the moon by turns. And then head housewife cut the mooncake representing family reunion. The hostess must keep in mind the exact number of the whole family before she began to cut the mooncake because she could not cut it more and not less, and must ensure each piece of the mooncake was of the same size.

Later, nobles and literatus followed suit. On the night of the Mid-autumn Festival, facing the clearly bright moon, they passionately watched and enjoyed it, worshiping and paying tribute to the round moon to express their feelings inside. Then this practice custom spread and was passed down on to the folk, forming a traditional activity. The ancient people paid greater stress to and more attention on this practice until the Tang Dynasty, when the Mid-autumn Festival was established a fixed festival. "August 15 Mid-autumn Festival" was recorded in Taizong Record of Tang History.

In the Tang Dynasty, during the Mid-autumn Festival, watching and enjoying the bright full moon prevailed, together with playing some sports related to the moon. On the night of it in the capital Bianjing, now known as the Kaifeng City, of the Northern Song Dynasty, everybody in the whole city, without regard to rich or poor, must wear adult clothes, burned incenses, worshiped the moon with a good wish and praying for the bless from the goddess of the moon.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, people presented mooncakes as gifts among them, representing the meaning of reunion. In some places, the activities were held such as grass-dragon dancing and building pagodas and so on. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the customs of the Mid-autumn Festival were much more prevalent with varieties of more traditional practices appearing here and there. So the festival was prevalent in the Song Dynasty, and in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it grew as famous as the New Year's Day and became one of our major festivals.

According to legend, a very ugly girl named Wuyan, piously worshiped the moon during her childhood, so when she grew up, she was chose into the imperial palace owing to her outstanding morality. But she was not bestowed favor on by the emperor. When enjoying himself and the moon some year, the emperor saw her in the moonlight, feeling her outstandingly beautiful, and right then, he made her his queen.

So after that, it continued forever that people worshiped the full moon on the night of the Mid-autumn Festival. The goddess Chang'e housing the moon palace was noted for her unmatched beauty, so maidens worshiped the moon with a wonderful wish that they also could have Chang'e's beauty and bight moon-like face.

Today, the custom of playing sports in the moonlight is far from more prevalent than the past, but setting up a feast to enjoy the full round moon continues prevalently. People hold the wineglass up to the moon to celebrate a better life or wish distant relatives and friends good health and happiness sharing the beauty of the moonlight, though a thousand mile.