#WOMAN IN THE MOON MIDAUTUMN FULL#

Each cake is typically round in shape to represent the bursting moon, and stamped with a Chinese symbol wishing вЂњharmonyвЂќ or вЂњlongevity.вЂќ (ThatвЂ™s where the name Mooncake Festival comes from!) Customarily sold as a set of four, mooncakes are given to family, friends and business partners as a gesture of unity and togetherness. Whether yours is filled with a salted egg, lotus seed or red bean paste, mooncakes are an essential delicacy of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

#WOMAN IN THE MOON MIDAUTUMN FULL#

Family and friends gather outside under the full harvest moon to share stories, solve riddles and eat mooncakes. Different regions might use different seasonings to spice a duck or sweeten a mooncake, but one thing can always be agreed upon: the Mooncake Festival is about reunion. With the largest population in the world, itвЂ™s no wonder regional celebrations take place across the country of China. ItвЂ™s a time for family togetherness and yummy eats. The Mid-Autumn Festival, sometimes called the Mooncake Festival, has been bringing families together through multiple dynasties and for thousands of years. Look to the skyвЂ“itвЂ™s almost a full moon! According to theВ Chinese lunarВ calendar, the 15th day of the 8th month of the year (which lands on September 24th in 2018) marks the second largest festival in China. Introduce your children to the Mid-Autumn Festival by sharing its ancient history and helping them complete a map activity and lantern riddles. And he had the songs which he had heard on the moon written down and sung to the accompaniment of flutes of jasper in his pear-tree garden.The full moon is nearing and the harvest is ready! Millions of people across China have their mooncakes prepared, awaiting a night of family fun. When the dance had ended, the emperor returned to earth again with the sorcerers. Beside the tree stood a mortar made of white marble, in which a jasper rabbit ground up herbs. A pure clear music floated through the air. Great is your fortune, since you have been able to find your way here!вЂќ And she called for her attendants, who came flying up on white birds, and sang and danced beneath the cassia tree. She smiled and said to the emperor: вЂњYou are a prince of the mundane world of dust. While they were still looking about them on all sides the Lady of the Moon stepped up to them, clad in a white mantle and a rainbow-colored gown.

The whole moon-world seemed made of glass. In the walls were cages and ponds, where fishes and birds moved as though alive. The silver stories of the castle towered one above the other, and its walls and columns were all formed of liquid crystal. Therefore it has to be cut down once in every thousand years.вЂќ Then they entered the spreading halls. The cassia tree grows so luxuriantly that in the course of time it would overshadow all the moonвЂ™s radiance. One of the sorcerers said: вЂњThat is the man in the moon. And in the tree sat a man who was chopping off the smaller boughs with an ax. There they saw a great castle on which was inscribed: вЂњThe Spreading Halls of Crystal Cold.вЂќ Beside it stood a cassia tree which blossomed and gave forth a fragrance filling all the air. And one of them took his bamboo staff and cast it into the air, where it turned into a heavenly bridge, on which the three climbed up to the moon together. On a night in mid-autumn, an emperor of the Tang dynasty once sat at wine with two sorcerers. When she reached the moon, she ran into the castle there, and has lived there ever since as the Lady of the Moon. But his wife who was named Tschang O, once ate some of it on the sly when he was not at home, and she immediately floated up to the clouds. He took it home with him and hid it in his room. And she gave him the herb of immortality. So Hou I came to Kunlun Mountain and met the Queen-Mother of the Jasper Sea. He mounted it to go a-hunting, and the horse ran away and could not be stopped. Besides his bow, Hou I also had a horse which ran so swiftly that even the wind could not catch up with it. And Hou I shot nine of them down from the sky. So the Emperor ordered Hou I to shoot at them. Once ten suns rose together in the sky, and shone so brightly and burned so fiercely that the people on earth could not endure them. In the days of the Emperor Yau lived a prince by the name of Hou I, who was a mighty hero and a good archer.

Woman in the moon midautumn