Mid-Autumn, the third major festival of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month falling this year on September 19th, 2013.
Legend has it the moon fairy living in a crystal palace comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface. The legend around the 'lady in the moon' dates back to ancient times to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once accomplished, the Goddess of the Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, the archer's wife found the pill, took it, and was banished to the moon. Legend says here beauty is the brightest on the day of the Moon Festival.
The Chinese celebrate this holiday with lanterns, feasting, moon cakes, and being together with family.
We tried the moon cakes. It is a bit of a Russian Roulette with these cakes...you could get coconut, red bean, salted egg, or even some mystery meat! Yikes! The red bean really gets you here in China because they use it for dessert type pastries and it looks like chocolate! Does not taste like chocolate!
Which is which? Who knows!
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