Mid-autumn Day
Today is the annual festival of China —Mid-autumn Day. Wake up early, I find many of my roommates are busy doing wash-ups earlier than usual. They look refreshed and high-spirited. Step out onto the balcony, clear sky and breezeless air cheers me up. What a day! The whole world is in a festival mood.
All right, if you are foreigners or if you are not quite familiar with the traditions, I would like to introduce some information about this festival:
Every August 15th in Chinese lunar year is the traditional Mid-autumn Day, which is named because it’s right in the middle of the autumn. In this very night, the moon is rounder and brighter than usual. When appreciating the wholesome crystal moon, family members would naturally hope to be reunited with their relatives. And troubadours missing their far away families would use the moon as trope to express their pensiveness. Therefore, the day is also called “Reunion Day”.
As a folktale says, during Spring and Autumn Period there was an ugly girl in Qi Guo. She had great piety every time when she was doing obeisance to the moon. After grew up, she was selected into the royal palace as an imperial concubine. But she wasn’t favored by the king until one Mid-autumn night, the king saw her in the amazing moonlight and thought she was attractive. And she was entitled as the Queen of the empire later. That’s why most young girls in the past would do obeisance to the moon on the Mid-autumn day, wishing to become more and more beautiful. They also believe in the existence of the goddess in the moon who can grant them beauty.
In tradition, people would not only appreciate the moon and eat moon cakes, but also do dragon dance, human pagoda, and sky lantern etc.
Now, most traditional celebrations are lost. But moon cakes are becoming more and more popular. People give it as present to friend and families to send their best wishes.
Hoho, after a long revision of our typical Chinese tradition, I feel quite proud of my country’s culture. By the way, my class is going to have a party to celebrate this Mid-autumn Day. Although, I can’t spend the very night with my own family, I won’t be alone anyway. And I want to send my best wishes to people all over the world: happy Mid-autumn Day!!!