MOONCAKE FESTIVAL

HISTORY OF MOONCAKE FESTIVAL
Mooncake festival, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival or Lantern Festival, is a time when children run around with colorful lanterns and families gather for some delicious mooncakes filled with sweet or savory fillings. It is the only time of the year when children are allowed to stay up late and play with colorful lanterns. Some carry colored lanterns in the shape of animals and their favorite cartoon character, while others carry traditional round paper lanterns that are usually used as decoration. Many children are also seen carrying battery operated plastic lanterns which many adults feel are safer.
Moon-walking Goddess
A popular Chinese myth related to the Mooncake Festival involves the immortal Chang Er who lives on the moon. She was very beautiful and people celebrate her beauty during the mooncake festival, when the moon is at its brightest and roundest - on the 15th of eight lunar month.
Once upon a time in China, ten suns appeared in the sky and this was causing much grief to the people. Crops were withering, rivers were drying up and people were dying from the heat. This catastrophe forced the emperor to summon Hou Yi, a mythological archer to shoot down the suns in return for an immortal elixir. He wanted to shoot down all the suns but his wife, Chang Er begged him to leave one up in the sky for warmth and light. As Hou Yi was about to go against his wife's wishes, his wife grabbed the immortal elixir and drank it as a form of protest immediately after, Chang Er began floating higher and higher until she reached the moon and stayed there.

CHEW SHER NEE A121726