The Legend of Chinese Mid-autumn Festival

Sept. 7, 2011 - PRLog -- The Chinese people often associate the ancient legends with the silver moon at the Mid-Autumn Festival, such as "Chang'e Flying to the Moon," "Wu Gang Felling the Laurel Tree", and "Jade Rabbit Pounding Herbal Medicines into Pulp," making the festival full of dreamlike and romantic colors. Among, the much-told is Chang'e Flying to the Moon.

In the time of remote antiquity, ten suns abruptly appeared in the sky at the same time in one year. On the earth, the water was drying up, the plants were withering, people and the animals were thirsty up. Houyi, a legendary hero who was a master of archery, saw the fact. He shot down nine suns and the earth survived. His merit was honored by the people, a lot of men sought instruction in archery from him. An evil guy called Fengmeng became one of his students. Before long, Houyi married a fairy virtuous girl - Chang'e. Houyi loved his wife very much and always stayed with her except the time of teaching and hunting.

One day, Houyi get an elixir from Lady Queen Mother (the Heaven Master's wife in Chinese myth) while he was calling on his friends on Kunlun Mountain. It was said that a person could be immortal being immediately if the elixir was taken. However, Houyi could not want to fly to the heaven alone and let his wife alone. He gave her wife the elixir to keep temporarily. Unluckily, the secret was heard by evil Fengmeng.

Three days later, Houyi planned to go out hunting with his students. Fengmeng pretended to be ill. He was promised to stay at home. Soon after Houyi and his other students left, Fengmeng took a sword and attempted to force Chang'e to give him the elixir. Without an urgent aid, Chang'e had to make a prompt decision. She swallowed the elixir and immediately flew out from the house, up to the sky. Worrying about her husband, Chang'e befell and became an immortal being on the moon (where is the nearest from the earth).

At the dusk of the day, Houyi came back home. The handmaidens told him what happened, when he heard that news, he just wanted to kill Fengmeng. But Fengmeng ran away for a long time. The grieved Houyi, calling his wife's name, looked up to moon at night. To his surprise, he saw a figure just the same as Chang'e on the full moon. He hurried to set something what Chang'e like on the table in garden to express that he missed her. The date was just Aug. 15th on Chinese lunar calendar when the clearest and bright full moon appeared.

When the people heard that Chang'e had flown to the moon and became an immortal being, they did the same thing as Houyi, not for love, just praying for blessing. Since then, a tradition has come out and last from generation to generation.

For more legends or interesting facts about Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, please visit http://www.chinafacttours.com/facts/festivals/mid-autumn-...

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