On Monday, September 12, many Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the most important holidays besides Chinese New Year. It is also known as Moon Festival because it is celebrated when the moon is at its brightest of the year.
Sherman Guo from CICC U.S. Securities shared with us one of the legends behind the celebration. It centers around a husband and wife, Houyi and Chang’e, who were long ago banished from heaven and forced to live on Earth.
To survive, Houyi learned to hunt and became a skilled and famous archer. At that time, the Earth had ten suns in the form of three-legged birds. Each day, one of the sun birds would travel around the world on a carriage, driven by Xihe, the “mother†of the suns. One day, the ten suns circled together, causing the Earth to burn. Emperor Yao, the emperor of China at the time, commanded Houyi to use his archery skill to shoot down all but one of the suns.
To reward Houyi, the Emperor gave him a pill that granted eternal life. Houyi was not to swallow the pill immediately, but pray and fast for a year before taking it. Houyi took the pill home and hid it. One day, while he was away, Chang’e noticed a beam of light coming from the rafters and found the pill. Chang’e swallowed it and immediately began to fly. Houyi returned home, realizing what had happened, he began to reprimand his wife. Chang’e escaped by flying out the window into the sky.
When Chang’e reached the moon, she coughed up part of the pill and commanded a hare that lived on the moon to make another pill so she could return to Earth and her husband. To this day, the hare is still pounding herbs, trying to make the pill, and Chang’e remains on the moon, representing “Yin,†while Houyi lives in a palace in the sun, representing “Yang.” Once a year, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Houyi visits his wife and that is why the full moon burns brightly on this night.
