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Slide 1: Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival
Slide 2: Mid-Autumn Festival On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, with a full moon overhead, the Chinese celebrate the harvest by retreating to country to enjoy mooncakes, pomoloes, and tea with their families. This celebration is known as the Mid-Autumn Festival. This is a time for family reunions. When a great distance or other circumstance separates family members or lovers, the Chinese say that they can still share the same moon on the same night. The moon has been central to Chinese life for centuries. Chinese calendars, many legends, and some of China’s greatest poets are closely associated with the moon. The chinese believe the moon to be it’s brightest on this day.
Slide 3: Lunar Calendar The Chinese calendar is composed of twelve months of twenty nine or thirty days. An extra month is added every two or three years to keep the months true to the seasons and solstices. The months begin on calculated dates for new moons. The calendar runs a sixty year cycle based on ten Celestial Stems and twelve Terrestrial Branches. The Terrestrial Branches correspond to the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The moon is full or near full on the fifteenth day of any month. The moon on 12 September 2000, the day of this year’s festival, is pictured above.
Slide 4: Mooncake s The Han People wanted to spread news of a planned revolt against the Yuan dynasty (A.D. 1280-1368) without officials discovering the plan. So they spread a rumor that a plague was destroying the people who could only be saved by eating special mooncakes. In these mooncakes the revolutionaries planted notes reading “revolt on the fifteenth of the eighth month”. The plan was successful and the Han people overthrew the Mongolian rule. To this day mooncakes are eaten on the fifteenth day of the eighth month in China and have been incorporated into the mid autumn festival.
Slide 5: Pomeloes The Chinese word for Pomoloe sounds the same as the word for blessing. The season for Pomoloes coincides with the Moon Festival and they have been incorporated into the festival. The pomoloe has a sweet taste and a very distinctive shape and color.
Slide 6: Chang E Ten suns appeared in the sky and began to burn all the crops. The archer Houyi shot down 9 of the 10 suns as commanded by the emperor. As a reward Houyi asked for the hand of emperor’s daughter, Chang E, in marriage. The emperor gladly conceded. Houyi was then given an immortality elixir because the emperor was worried that the suns may someday reappear. Chang E greedily swallowed the elixir and slowly began to float. She floated up to the moon and remains there to this day. It is believed that she ascended on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. It is said that this great beauty is at her most beautiful on this night.
Slide 7: Wu Kang Wu Kang was a shiftless fellow who drifted from apprenticeship to apprenticeship. He was fascinated by the magic of immortality. His final master was an immortal. When this master became disappointed by Wu Kang, he punished him by banishing him to the moon. Wu Kang would have to remain there until he had chopped down a magical cassia tree. The cassia tree could not be chopped down, however, because it would regenerate itself as Wu Kang chopped the tree. If you look carefully at the shadows on the moon you can see him still chopping.
Slide 8: Jade Rabbit Three sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men and begged for food. They approached a fox, a monkey, and a rabbit. The fox and monkey both offered the old men food. The rabbit, however, had no food and threw himself into a blazing fire to cook himself for the men to eat. The sages, upon seeing this sacrifice, saved the rabbit and allowed him to live on the moon with the Jade Emperor at his palace on the moon.
Slide 9: Chinese Cupid The Chinese equivalent of cupid is known as “the old man under the moon”. He can unite any man and woman by using a red thread to tie their feet together making them man and wife. The old man under the moon is so powerful he can unite people from widely separated places or warring factions.
Slide 10: Poetry Li Bai, China’s most famous poet, wrote many poems about drinking wine and gazing at the moon. This is his most famous poem: Night Thoughts I wake and moonbeams play around my bed Glittering like hoarfroast to my wondering eyes Upwards the glorious moon I raise my head Then lay me down and thoughts of home arise. This translation is by H. A. Giles. Li Bai found his end during a drunken episode when he leaned out of his boat to invite the moon to join him only to fall into the water and drown.
Slide 11: Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival
Slide 12: Resources TiT Festivals: The Mid-Autumn Festival Taiwan Government Page chinapage.org Chinese Calender A view of the Moon (very cool) PSU Chinese Program Home Page Earth -- Media -- Encarta ® Online Deluxe