Save the Date: The Chinese Moon Festival Celebration
Featuring
the Mulan Performing Arts Association
Saturday, September 29th, 2:00
p.m-4:00pm.
The Moon Festival, the second largest holiday in Asia after the lunar new
year, will be celebrated at the Worcester Public Library! Also called the
Mid-Autumn Festival, it is an annual Chinese celebration of the moon, based on
the story of the Moon Lady, a popular Chinese folk tale.
Enjoy an afternoon
family program of culture and fun with the Mulan Performing Group's dance and music, and taste delicious
moon cakes!
Free and open to the public, all ages welcome.
Saxe Room Main Library, 3 Salem Square, Worcester MA 01608
What is the Chinese Moon Festival?
The Chinese Moon Festival,
also known as the Mid-Autumn or Moon cake Festival, is the second biggest
holiday for Chinese after the Chinese New Year, similar to Thanksgiving in the
West.
It
is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon in the Chinese lunar
calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year. The festival is a day celebrated
throughout the Far East and all Chinese communities in the world. In 2012, it
is on September 30th.
The
Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. Children are told the story of the
moon lady living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon's
shadowed surface.
The
legend surrounding the moon lady dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten
suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer, Yi, to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once
the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a
pill that would make him immortal. However, his wife, Chang Er found the pill, took
it, and was banished to the moon as a result. Legend says that her beauty is
greatest on the day of the Moon festival.
How to celebrate the Chinese Moon Festival
Chinese
people celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival eat moon cakes, drink jasmine tea and
watch a program of Chinese dances and music.
There
are varieties of moon cakes, which in their roundness are symbolic of family
unity. Some are made of lotus seed paste, some of red bean paste, some with
mixed nuts, and many have a salty duck egg yolk (representing the full moon) in
the center. In some regions, the moon cakes are crusty, while in others they
are flaky.
