A product of
West Aspiration Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd
Langkawi Nature Blogs
Mooncake Festival
Shirley, 29 September 2009
One of the most important Chinese holidays
The Mooncake Festival (also known as Mid-Autumn Festival) is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is usually around late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. The day is popularly celebrated by Chinese people dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty.
This year's Mooncake Festival, the Buddhist Society is organizing a Mooncake Festival celebration to gather the members in Langkawi to celebrate this important holiday. Everyone is asked to bring a present, which is to be swapped with others. There will be dance and singing performances, food and light snacks to entertain the guests.
Date: 2 October 2009
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Buddhist Society Centre, Taman Medan Berjaya
The story behind the Mooncake Festival has at least six versions.
In the most popular one, "Houyi" was the greatest archer in the world. One day, the ten suns all assembled around the earth and destroyed all vegetation. The desperate King offered his crown to anyone who could shoot down the suns. "Houyi" answered his call and shot down nine. "Houyi" then became the next King. He was pampered to the extent that he wanted to be King forever. He called his advisers to look for a way to make him immortal. His advisers found a recipe for the Pill of Immortality. It required 100 adolescent boys to be ground into a biscuit like a pill, and so every night he ground one boy. On the hundredth night, his wife "Chang'e" could not bear to watch her husband become a cruel king for eternity. She stole the pill, with Houyi shooting arrows at her, and flew to the moon grabbing a rabbit to keep her company.
On Mooncake Festival, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat mooncakes and pomelos together on this day, sometimes accompanying with carrying lit lanterns and fire dragon dance. People also send mooncakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion.
