Saturday was one of the largest Asian holidays of the year. Sometimes called the Mid-Autumn Festival and sometimes called Moon Festival, this ritual focuses on being thankful. And the stories that go along with it include everything from bunnies mixing magic potions to the Moon Goddess of Immortality. Street-side fires pop up in every part of the city as families and friends celebrate the end of the fall harvest.
"As with most festivals, there is a story to go along with Moon Festival. There are many versions of the Moon Festival legend, but most of them involve the archer Hou Yi and his wife Chang’e.
Many years ago, there were ten suns in the sky. Crops could not grow and rivers ran dry, so the people were dying of hunger and thirst. Hou Yi took his bow and arrows and shot down nine of the ten suns, saving the people.
As a reward, the Western Queen Mother gave Hou Yi a potion mixed by Jade Rabbit. If Hou Yi shares that potion with his wife, they will both live forever, but if only one of them takes the potion, he or she will become a god.
Hou Yi and Chang’e plan to take the potion together. But one of Hou Yi’s enemies, Feng Meng, hears about the potion and plans to steal it. One night, on a full moon, Feng Meng kills Hou Yi, then forces Chang’e to give him the potion.
Rather than give the evil man the potion, Chang’e drinks it all herself. She starts to rise into heaven, but she feels a close connection to the world of the mortals, and wants to stay close to them, so she stops at the moon, the closest body to earth."
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