When the Mid-Autumn Festival Comes

Compiled by Zhang Chengyi

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most anticipated and important festivals among Chinese. Children canfinally eat the moon cakes that are on display all around them for the month before. Grownups cherish the precious chance to gather together with relatives and friends. Elders wait for their children to arrive back at home. Whatever the reason is to look forward, the Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most remarkable celebrations in China.

Yellowish, fragrant cakes immediately pop into the mind of every Chinese individual when thinking about the Mid-Autumn Festival. Moon cakes were originated in the Song Dynasty(960-1279). As the great Song poet Su Shi wrote: “Little cakes resembling the moon, with crisps and sweets in it.”

There are also fascinating historical anecdotes about moon cake from other times. The very first emperor of Ming Dynasty(1368-1644), Zhu Yuanzhang(1328-1398), used mooncakes as envelopes during his revolution.At that time, the emperor of Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) had extremely rigid restrictions about message sending, making it excessively difficult for the rebellion to communicate with other revolutionary forces. The leader of the rebellion, Zhu Yuanzhang, came up with a genius idea—to put the secret messages of initiating the revolutionary war on the night of August 15 in the round, fragrant cakes to communicate with his allies. The revolution was a great success.After becoming the emperor of the new dynasty, euphoric Zhu Yuanzhang made moon cakes a dessert of celebrating success,and the tradition passed on from generation to generation.

In addition to this tale of intrigue and espionage, another popular story must be the tale of Chang’e, the moon goddess.It has many versions, and one of them goes like this: Once upon a time, there was an intrepid archer called Houyi, who saved the world from ten flaming hot suns by shooting down nine of them,bringing a comfortable climate to all human beings. The people made him the emperor. However,he became an indifferent and brutal tyrant. Houyi went to the goddess Nuwa to seek eternal life and returned with some “longevity pills.” His wife, Chang’e, was a considerate woman who didn’t want her husband to suppress the people forever, so she ate the pills secretly, and fl oated up to the moon.

Beyond all of these tales,the Mid-Autumn Festival has its practical meaning. It is an opportunity to gather together with family members and friends,and send messages of love,longing, and greetings to each other. The moon is truly like a communication satellite, helping people send their messages of longing to each other.

中秋節是中國人一年中最翹首以盼的節日之一。孩子為吃月餅，已經饞了幾個月了。成年人則更看重與親朋好友團聚的寶貴機會。老人們都期待著兒女能回到身邊團聚。不論緣由幾何，中秋節是中國最隆重節日之一。

一提到中秋，首先躍入腦海的是黃澄澄、香噴噴的月餅。月餅的起源可以追溯到宋朝。宋朝文豪蘇軾曾寫道：“小餅如嚼月,中有酥和飴”。

關于月餅，有這樣一個有趣的故事。明朝的開國皇帝朱元璋，曾利用月餅作信封傳遞起義的消息。當時的元朝皇帝對于消息的傳遞有著非常嚴苛的限制，統一全國的起義力量推翻元朝統治難于登天。朱元璋作為起義軍的首領，想出了一個絕妙的主意：把“八月十五夜起義”的密信塞進圓圓的大餅子里，跟各方起義軍聯系，起義的消息密不透風地傳到各地。元朝被徹底推翻。登基以后，大喜過望的朱元璋自然是對這功不可沒的小餅情有獨鐘，于是便將它作為慶典糕點推廣，逐漸演化成了八月十五吃月餅的習俗。

另一個和中秋有關的傳說是“嫦娥奔月”，有多個版本，其中之一這樣寫道：相傳很久以前，勇猛的弓箭手后裔射下了九個暴曬人間的太陽，為大地帶來了宜人的天氣。后羿因此深受愛戴，人們奉他為王。后羿稱王后日漸膨脹，變成了一個暴君。他去找女神女媧索要長生不老的方法，并帶回了幾顆長生不老藥。后羿的妻子嫦娥，不愿看到夫君推行暴政。為了人民的利益，她搶過長生不老藥，全部吃下，飄然飛進月宮，成了月中仙。

除去傳說，中秋節更現實的意義，在于家人團聚和親友寄托思念。“海上生明月，天涯共此時。” 當所有人都欣賞這共同的美景時，對遠方親友的相思油然而生。明月成了一顆通訊衛星，為地球上的萬億終端，傳遞相思情義。