Autumn Moon Festival

This weekend we celebrated the Autumn Moon Festival with other local families with children from China. In Chinese culture, it is a time to reconnect with family and loved ones, and much like our Thanksgiving, it is a time for gratitude and appreciation. For me (and perhaps for E down the road), it is a symbolic way to connect with a birth family, who, although far away, are held close in our hearts.

It was a day of play for the kids with various games and crafts. Who knew I could actually make a Chinese yoyo spin? Several of the students from the Chinese Student Association at the U of R joined in the fun. There was a fashion show and lantern parade, followed by a pot-luck dinner and slide show. And last but not least, was the story teller. The Chinese tell a fascinating legend at the time of the Autumn Moon Festival and this was the version the story teller shared with us (dating back to around 2170 B.C.), with the help of several of the children who acted out the tale as it unfolded:

On the other side of the world is a country with a long and rich history. That country is China. China has many traditions. One of those is called the Moon Festival. Every year in China, on the 15th night of the 8th lunar month, the Chinese people celebrate the Moon Festival. The moon is the most full and bright on that night, they believe, because a husband and wife who lost one another are reunited on the moon.

This is the story of Hou Yi and Chang Er.

Once upon a time there was a famous archer, Hou Yi, who with his arrows was able to slay mankind’s worst enemies, ferocious beasts that inhabited the earth. Yi was married to Chang Er, a beautiful but inquisitive woman who had been an attendant of the queen mother of the west before her marriage. Now at this time, there were 10 suns that took turns circling the earth-one every 10 days. One day, all 10 of the orbs circled, together, causing the earth’s surface to burn and threatening mankind. The wise emperor of China summoned Yi and commanded him to shoot down all but one of the suns. This Yi proceeded to do. Upon the completion of his task, Yi was rewarded with a pill, the elixir of life, and advised: "make no haste to swallow this pill, but first prepare yourself with prayer and fasting for a year." Being a wise man, Yi took the pill home and hid it under a rafter while he began healing his spirit. In the midst of this, Yi was summoned again by the emperor.

While her husband was gone, Chang Er noticed a beam of white light beckoning from the rafter. She followed it and a fragrant perfume, discovered the pill and swallowed it. Immediately, Chang Er found she could fly. Just at that moment her husband returned home. Yi quickly realized what had happened and before he could begin to reprimand his wife, she flew out the window into the sky. Yi sped after Chang Er, bow in hand, and the pursuit continued halfway across the heavens. Finally, Yi had to return to the earth because of the force of the wind.

His wife reached the moon and there, breathless, she coughed. And because part of the pill fell from her mouth, it is there that she came to rest. Now, the hare was already on the moon and Chang Er commanded the animal to take pestle and mortar and pound another pill so that she could return to earth and her husband. The hare is still pounding.

How did the hare get on the moon you ask? Well, there's a legend for that as well: Three sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men and begged for something to eat from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the rabbit, empty-handed, offered his own flesh instead, jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself. The fairies were so touched by the rabbit's sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the "Jade Rabbit."

As for Yi, he built himself a palace in the sun as Yang (the sun and the male principle). His beloved Chang Er as Yin (the moon and the female principle), resides in the Moon Palace.

Once a year, on the 15th day of the full moon, Yi visits his wife. That is why the moon is full and beautiful on that night.

To celebrate Hou Yi's and Chang Er’s night of love, the Chinese people celebrate the Moon Festival. They eat Moon Cakes, which have a very special meaning. A long time ago the Mongols took over China and they were very cruel to the people. A brave Chinese man named Liu Fu Tong made little cakes in the shape of the moon. Inside each cake he hid a written message that told the people, "On the 15th night of the 8th month, rise up and fight the Mongols to take back our land," and the Chinese people took back their country.

Every culture has its legends and heroes. We all live and die, and hopefully - somewhere in the middle of all that living and dying - we learn to love. Do you think we'll ever figure out that we are more alike than we are different?