Mid-autumn Festival, a time for joy and cheer

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Cake Festival is a widely celebrated festival in many parts of China. In Xiamen the festival is held with great joy and enthusiasm. This festival is celebrated on the eighth lunar month's 15th day, which usually occurs in October in the western calendar.

Every native family in Xiamen joyously involves itself in the celebrations, and since it is a time for family reunion family members living in other areas come home to join in the celebrations. Restaurants and hotels prepare special festive meals for the season, and everyone competes to make the best moon cakes, the focus of the celebrations. Moon cakes are a distinctive Chinese delicacy, made with both sweet and savoury fillings. The taste, texture and the quality of the filings are the criteria used to judge the moon cake.

In Xiamen large packs of moon cakes are sold - with each package including a set of dice. Participants take part in the game which resembles gambling so as to determine who wins which moon cake, Often manufacturers will include a set of rules for the sport in every pack of moon cakes. Each set consists of 63 differently sized moon cakes and the game's winners are conferred the names of the ranks of imperial officials. The ultimate winner is called ‘Zhuangyuan' and is entitled to the largest moon cake. The visitor who strolls the streets of Xiamen during this season will hear the sound of dice rolling everywhere in the city.

The origins of the Mid-autumn Festival are shrouded in legend. Popular tradition has it that in years past ten suns rose in the sky each day, searing crops and land and driving the people into poverty. A superhuman hero Hou Yi shot down the unnecessary suns with his bow, saving the inhabitants of the land. After this feat which gained him great popularity and reverence Wangmu, Empress of Heaven bestowed an elixir on him which granted celestial life and immortality; however Hou Yi, reluctant to part with his loving wife Chang E gave it to her for safekeeping.

A deceitful villain Peng Meng attempted to steal the elixir, but rather than surrendering the potion to evil, Chang E consumed it herself. When Hou Yi returned the distraught hero saw his wife's image on the moon, but was unable to reach her. In Chang E's memory, all the people began to pray to her for peace and good fortune. In this way the worship of the moon is said to have begun.

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