On the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, the Chinese celebrate Mid-Autumn. The seventh, eighth and ninth months of the lunar calendar make up autumn and the 15th of the eighth month is in the middle, hence the name of this festival. During this season, the moon is usually clear and bright as there are few clouds; on the 15th of the eight month, there is a full moon, which is a good time for people to enjoy it. The day is also known as the Reunion Festival as it is a time for family get-togethers and it is second in importance only to the Spring Festival.
The Mid-Autumn Festival goes back a long way, with people enjoying the moonlight and offering sacrifices to the moon (in spring, ancient kings as well as common folk would do this as well as offering sacrifices to the sun in spring). Gradually, over time, this ceremony to honour the moon became a way for people to have fun.
The moon plays an important role in Chinese literature and culture and now sacrifices to the moon have been replaced with the notion of just getting together with friends and family and simply having a good time.
This is a time of moon cakes – these are round, symbolising tuanyuan (reunion) – yuan also means round, so this is the shape of the cakes. These cakes themselves have a long history and various different legends tell of how they might have come about. One of these legends says that one of the emperor’s concubines, in the 8th century, decided to call them moon cakes as the emperor didn’t like the name Hu cakes.
Moon cake recipes vary; the main areas producing them are Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Chaozhou and Suzhou. The cakes are either savoury or sweet, meat or fruit, depending on the area. They are also decorated characters and flower patterns, making them look nice, as well.
Stories and legends about the moon have long flourished in China; one of the most famous of these is the story of Chang E, who was given the elixir of life by the Queen Mother of the Western Heavens, and ate it without her husband’s permission – her husband was Hou Yi, who shot down the nine suns. She thereby turned into a goddess and flew to the moon. Another one is that the Jade hare and toad on the moon are visible on the night of the festival.
These stories imbue the moon with a mystique that intrigues children as they listen to their parents.
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