2008年10月20日月曜日

Moon Festival



Last week while surfing on the internet I found an interesting event called Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival. It's a traditional harvest festival which takes place in China around mid or late September. It is one of the two most important holidays in China, and has 3000years history. The Chinese thinks circular shaped moon as a symbol of a happy family, and with the harvest close at hand relatives gather and pray for a happy and peaceful life. This is a memorial event for rebellion fleeing from Mongolians in 14th century, and said to be one of the Chinese soldier hid a memo in a cake and succeeded to recapture their castle.
At the festival among "moon cakes"(cake made out of lotus,sesame and eggs) colorful lanterns are sold at shops. Families and lovers will gather to admire he bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and goes to parks and mountains with the lanterns of various shapes and colors and eat the moon cakes together until midnight. Sounds fun! Doesn't it? In the future I'd like to pay a visit to this special occasion! There are also many legends of the Moon Festival, so if you are interested you should search it on the internet.