In conjunction with the Mid-Autumn Festival a.k.a. the Moon cake festival, I would like to share some folklore on Mid Autumn festival. Personlly, I didn't even know of the first three folklore and only found out about them while watching a television programme yesterday. Not too sure if I got it right as the programme was in Mandarin. My Mandarin proficiency is that of a Primary school kid or perhaps kindy level as I am English educated and have never had any official lessons on Mandarin. So don't penalise me if the folklore aren't accurate.
Folklore 1A long, long time ago, there were 10 suns shining down on earth. The heat emitted by the sun was unbearable, resulting in drought and withering crops. Then a warrior named Ho Yi shot nine arrows into the sky and extinguished 9 of the 10 suns. The Earth was then left with one sun shining down on it. A goddess descended from the Heavens and awarded Ho Yi with an elixir of immortality. Ho Yi the warrior then gave the elixir to his wife Chang Er. One day, when Ho Yi was away from home, a man with bad intentions went to his house. This man called Peng Meng tried to steal the elixir from Chang Er as he wanted to be immortal. The warrior’s wife, Chang Er knowing that she couldn’t fight off Peng Meng, swallowed the elixir. She then floated and ascended to the sky and landed on the moon. She has been living on the moon ever since. Hence on the fifteenth of the eighth month on the Chinese lunar calendar, people will pay tribute to the lady in the moon with hope of getting a blessing from above.
Folklore 2Once upon a time, three Gods descended from the Heaven and disguised themselves as 3 pitiful old men. They met three animals on Earth namely a Monkey, a Fox and a Rabbit. The three men then asked for some food from the three animals. Both the Monkey and the Fox offered the three men the food that they have. The Rabbit, not having anything to give to the three men offered itself and leapt into the fire. Touched by the Rabbits sacrifice, the three men transformed the Rabbit into the Jade Rabbit when the rabbit ascended to heaven. The Jade Rabbit resides on the Moon and makes elixir. On the fifteenth of the eighth month on the Chinese lunar calendar, the “shadow/image” of the Jade Rabbit pounding Elixir could be spotted on the Moon.
Folklore 3Legend has it that there is a wood cutter that chops trees in the Moon. His name is Wu Gang. He was demoted from his warrior position because of a mistake he made. As punishment, he was made a wood cutter at the Moon Palace. Wu Gang could never finish chopping the tree because every time the tree is chopped it would restore itself magically. Hence this is an eternal punishment to Wu Gang as he has to chop the laurel tree that will never fall. It is claimed that on the fifteenth of the eighth lunar month of the Chinese calendar, the “image/shadow” of a wood cutter could be seen on the full moon.
Folklore 4 (This I have eard of)
Once upon a time, a war erupted. The army contingents have to be very cautious of their speech as there were spies among them. The battle plans were highly confidential. Hence it could not be communicated to their comrades in letters for fear of the plans being leaked to the enemy. They then came up with a plan. The battle plans were communicated in strips of paper placed in moon cakes that are sent to their comrades in other army contingents. That is how the moon cake came into being.
