![]() If you look hard enough, you might just be able to spot Chang’e’s likeness on the moon! This caused her to drift towards the moon, where she finally settled. That very night, she found her husband’s reward and drank every last drop. On the other hand, Chang’e had her eyes set on the elixir. Because of this, Hou Yi chose to remain mortal and hid the elixir under his bed. However, there was only enough elixir for one person, and Hou Yi did not want to become immortal if his wife, Chang’e, could not live with him for eternity. As a reward, the goddess Xiwangmu presented Hou Yi with the elixir of immortality. He shot down nine suns, leaving only one in the sky. ![]() One day, a talented archer named Hou Yi decided he’d had enough. Legend has it that there used to be ten suns in the sky, which would scorch the earth and make lives insufferable. While Chang’e is associated with a number of varying myths, she is best known for stealing the elixir of immortality. The most widely-told Mid Autumn Festival story features Chang’e, the moon goddess. ![]() Photo credit: Sengkang via Wikimedia Commons However, all lantern carnivals in Hong Kong have been cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Victoria Park is home to Hong Kong’s most popular Mid Autumn Lantern Carnival, welcoming massive camera-touting crowds every year. After dinner, families head to lantern carnivals at parks across the city for a light-filled moon-gazing session. A typical Hong Kong Mid Autumn Festival celebration begins at dinnertime, when extended families gather under one roof and dine together. This is such that they can head home and prepare for the evening feast. In Hong Kong, employees tend to get off work earlier on that day. Despite the festival’s origins in celebrating the autumn harvest, contemporary society places more emphasis on gathering and returning home, as the full moon symbolizes reunion in Chinese culture. Having said that, records show that Chinese communities have celebrated the harvest during the autumn full moon since the Shang dynasty (c. However, nobody knows for sure how and when it came about. The Mid Autumn Festival became an official celebration during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 CE). On this day, families gather to feast on mooncakes, hang up lanterns, and admire the fullest moon of the year. It falls on the 15th day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar, which is when the moon is at its biggest and brightest. There are also many different versions of each story, but the common theme in all of them is the focus on the moon.The Mid Autumn Festival is an ancient Chinese celebration of the full moon, family, and harvest. ![]() Today, this love story is one of many that help explain the mythical origins of Mid-Autumn Festival. "This is the significance of the moon and the romanticism associated with it." "Could you imagine if you love somebody and you only get to meet once a year?" said Chen. He’d prepare a table with incense and his wife’s favorite foods, in hopes that she would see them from her perch on the moon and one day return home. In an attempt to see his wife once again, Hou Yi began an annual tradition when the moon was at its brightest. While becoming immortal saved her from an evil man, it ended her life with her beloved husband, who was left alone and heartbroken. Hou Yi was devastated when he learned about what happened to Chang’e. The full moon is seen during the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2015 in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province of China. At that moment, her body began to float and ascend high into the heavens until she landed on the moon. To prevent the elixir from falling into the wrong hands, Chang’e decided to drink it. On one fateful day, when Chang’e was alone at home, a man wielding a sword came by and tried to force her to hand him the elixir. Word spread about the elixir of immortality, and it attracted some evil attention. So rather than drink the elixir, he gave it to Chang’e to treasure and keep safe. But by relinquishing his mortality, Hou Yi would also have to leave his beloved wife, Chang’e. In fact, the goddess of heaven gifted Hou Yi an elixir that would make him immortal and allow him to join the gods, should he choose to drink it. This heroic feat brought Hou Yi into the good graces of the gods. Hou Yi shot nine out of the sky, leaving the one sun we know today. One of the gods asked Hou Yi, an archer, to save the planet by shooting down some of the suns. The many suns scorched the Earth's surface, bringing drought to the land, destroying crop yields and causing death and poverty. The planet looked different, with the gods reigning supreme and the sky burning with the fury of ten suns. The moon rises over a tower during Mid-Autumn Festival on Septemin Tai'an, Shandong Province of China.
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