Stories about the moon festival
The moon festival is one of the wonderful festivals in Taiwan. Have you had mooncakes or pomelo on the moon festival? Did you get together with the one you love or friends? I believe that there are a lot of people had a beautiful and happy night on the moon festival. However, after that happiness, do you think you know the moon festival well? Let’s talking about the story behind the moon festival. There are different stories handed down to this day, and those gonna be described as followed.
- Chang’e flying to the moon
Long time ago, there were ten suns in the sky. The suns burnt all the plants and made earth too hot to living on till one day an archer Hou Yi shot down nine of the suns by his bow and arrow, to save people from the heated earth. People were very grateful to Hou Yi and crown him as a king. To praise Hou Yi’s heroism, the Queen of Heaven gave Him an elixir which, if taken, would ascend to heaven and become a god. Hou Yi asked Chang’e to keep it for him. Because he is love Change’e too much to leave her becoming a god.
Unfortunately, one of his students named Pengmeng know it and wanted to take the elixir to become a god. And therefore Pengmeng broke into their home and tried to take the elixir over when Hou Yi wasn’t home. To protect the elixir, Chang’e swallowed it in the nick of time. After eating the elixir, Chang’e flew to the moon.
Hou Yi couldn’t find his lovely wife when he got home, but He found there is a shadow like Chang’e on the moon. After that moment, Hou Yi watches the full moon at night when he misses Chang’e. To remember her and pray to her, Hou Yi and others started to worship the moon with many offerings. People believe Chang’s is still living on the moon. On the night of the Moon Festival, when the moon is round and bright, you might find the silhouette of Chang’e on the moon.
2. Zhu Yuanzhang and Moon Cake Uprising
In the late Yuan Dynast (1271–1368 AD), the government was corrupt and people suffered from the poor that they could not put up with it. Hence, people tried to rise in revolt. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD), convene the different resistances and wanted to organize an uprising. However, it was hard to spread messages due to the strict search by the government. The counselor Liu Bowen gave a suggestion that hiding notes with “uprise on the night of Mid-Autumn Day” in moon cakes and had them sent to different resistance forces. The uprising turned to be successful and Zhu was happy that he awarded his subjects with moon cakes on the following Mid-Autumn Festival. Since then, people eat moon cake on the Mid-Autumn Festival to memorize the might of Zhu.
3. Chú Cuội (Vietnamese story)
Long time ago, there is a Vietnamese named Chú Cuội got a Banyan tree from a god when he was logging in the forest, and the god told Chú Cuội leaves of the tree has wonderful power could cure all diseases, but the tree only can be cultivated with pure clean water. Otherwise, the tree would be ruined. Chú Cuội cultivated the tree as the god said, and used the tree leaves helping a lot of people. Unfortunately, one day a bandit broke into his home, he killed his wife and threw her organs away. Chú Cuội tried to save his wife back through Banyan tree leaves, but his wife can’t be relieved without organs. At the moment, a dog showed up and volunteers to give organs saving Chú Cuội’s wife. Eventually, Chú Cuội’s not only saved his wife with leaves but also kept the dog alive with clay organs. Chú Cuội’s wife changed her action after possessing dog organs, she acts like a dog. One day, the wife got an urgent need for urination and took a pee on the Banyan tree. Suddenly, the tree floated up and Chú Cuội tried to keep tree down by grabbing its roots.
Finally, Chú Cuội flew to the moon with the Banyan tree and stay on the moon forever and ever. Afterward, people light lanterns and participate in a procession to bright the way back to Earth for Chú Cuội and memory him.
Pictures in the article are retrieved from Webtoon comics- It’s about us.
you could get some adaptation stories about the moon festival from https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/its-about-us/the-moon-festival/viewer?title_no=283240&episode_no=8
Thank you for taking the time to read my article and hope you would like the webcomic.
