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China's Mid-Autumn Festival is traditionally celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunisolar month. The festival is the second most important festival after the Spring Festival to Chinese people. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festivity for both the Han and minority nationalities. The custom of worshipping the moon (called xi yue in Chinese) can be traced back as far as the ancient Xia and Shang Dynasties (2000 B.C.-1066 B.C.).
A long, long time ago, a terrible drought plagued the earth. Ten suns burned fiercely in the sky like smoldering volcanoes. The trees and grass were scorched. The land was cracked and parched, and rivers ran dry. Many people died of hunger and thirst.
Wu Gang was a woodchopper. He always wanted to become an immortal, but he never tried his best to learn the necessary theurgy. The Jade Emperor got angry with him because of his attitude.
The custom of eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival is said to have begun in the end of Yuan Dynasty(1271-1368). At that time，the general populace, faced with the unbearably cruel governing, rose up against the Yuan Government in succession.
One day, three immortals who were living in heaven came to the earth. They asked a fox, a monkey and a rabbit to find some food for them respectively. The fox and the monkey both found something for the three immortals while the rabbit got nothing.
Gazing at the Moon is an ancient tradition from the Zhou Dynasty (around 500 BC) when people held ceremonies to welcome the full moon,with huge outdoor feasts of moon cakes, watermelons, apricots, apples, grapesand other fresh fruits.
Eating moon cakes while watching the full moon is a centralpart of the mid-autumn festival throughout China, and is a symbol of familyunity. At the very beginning, the moon cakes were served as a sacrifice to the Moon.
There is no big lantern party during Mid-Autumn Festival, but children like making colorful lanterns very much. They make lanterns of different shapes and let them float on the rivers. They don´t leave the riverside until the light of the lanterns disappears.
A "flower mountain" made up of pots of various flowers was set up on the window sill of each house when the Mid-Autumn Festival was near. On the night of the festival, the family would gather and watch the flowers.
