Cocacafe - Mid Autumn Festival

The mid-autumn festival is also known as the mooncake or lantern festival. This festival falls on the fifteenth day of the eight month of the lunar calendar, when the full moon is at its brightness for the entire year. There is actually two stories to this celebration.

The first is based on the legend that one day, in the sky, ten suns appeared at once and the emperor ordered a very famous archer to shoot the nine extra suns down. When he succeeded, the Goddess of the western heavens was very pleased with him and granted him immortality by presenting him with a magic pill. However, his wife found the pill, took it and was forever banished to live on the moon through eternity.

The second story which is probably more accurate is based on Chinese history during the 13th century when the Mongols and Chinese where at war. Since the Mongols where not accustomed to eating mooncakes, the Chinese rebellions fighting against the Mongols used the moocakes to conceal secret messages to be spread amongst the rebellions. The mid-autumn festival was when the rebellion took place.

Nowadays, the Chinese custom is to gather with their families and have a sumptuous dinner which afterwards, mooncakes will be served with little cups of fragrant Chinese tea. And for the children, on the night of the celebration, they will wear their most colourful clothing and parade the streets carrying lit Chinese paper lanterns.