Nowadays, people present moon cakes to relatives and friends to demonstrate that they wish them a long and happy life. The moon cakes are round, symbolizing the reunion of a family, so it is easy to understand how the eating of moon cakes under the round moon can evoke longing for distant relatives and friends. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival Games, treats and fellowship were enjoyed by all who attended the annual YCIS Mid-Autumn Moon Festival on September 22. Moon cakes come in various flavors according to the region. On that day, people sacrifice moon cakes to the moon as an offering and eat them for celebration. The Moon Cake is the special food of Mid-Autumn Festival. In addition, there are some other customs like playing lanterns, and dragon and lion dances in some regions. On the festival day, family members gather to offer sacrifice to the moon, appreciate the bright full moon, eat moon cakes, and express strong yearnings toward family members and friends who live afar. The most well-known ones include Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine, Wu Gang Chopping Laurel Tree, and Zhu Yuanzhang and the Moon Cake Uprising. The Moon Festival is one of the most important. Its also known as the Mid-autumn Festival. In addition to the romantic legend Chang E Flying to the Moon mentioned above, there are many other legends and stories related to this grand festival. The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. Romantically speaking, the festival is to commemorate Chang E, who in order to protect her beloved husband’s elixir, ate it herself and flew to the moon. By the time of the Northern Song Dynasty (960 - 1127 AD), Mid-Autumn Festival had already become a widely celebrated folk festival. So the 15th of the 8th lunar month, the closest full moon day to the Autumnal Equinox, turned out to be a better choice and was set as a fixed festival. The people expressed their faith more liberally than the royal class and so they did not strictly hold their activities on the Autumnal Equinox. Later in the Sui (581 - 618 AD) and Tang (618 - 907 AD) dynasties, social prosperity inspired the custom of appreciating the moon on the moon sacrifice ceremony day among common people and the two merged. At that time, the custom had no festival background at all. This custom could be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty (1046 - 256 BC) and was more often practiced by the royal class on the Autumnal Equinox. Hence, to express their thanks to the moon and celebrate the harvest, they offered a sacrifice to the moon on autumn days. The ancient Chinese observed that the movement of the moon had a close relationship with changes of the seasons and agricultural production. Mid-Autumn Festival is an inherited custom of moon sacrificial ceremonies. The day is also known as the Moon Festival, as at that time of the year the moon is at its roundest and brightest. It takes its name from the fact that it is always celebrated in the middle of the autumn season. Falling on the 15th day of the 8th month according to the Chinese lunar calendar, the Mid-Autumn Festival is the second grandest festival in China after the Chinese New Year.
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