Happy Mooncake Festival 2021: Legends and Celebrations

Chinese Mooncake Festival Story

Mooncake festival 2021 falls on 21st September 2021, Tuesday. Yes, it is the full moon night of the autumn season. This is the harvest moon 2021 and marks the beginning of reaping activities in the majority of the regions. With chilled winter days behind, this is the best time for people to celebrate as well work. Mooncake festival is the mid autumn festival of China, Singapore, Vietnam, and other South-East Asian countries. This post will tell you some interesting facts about the celebration of this autumn moon festival. New moon dates are also important for cultures following lunar calendar.

Full moons have always been attractive to mankind since ages. The beauty and brightness of the full lunar disk are always attracting us. This naturally calls for happiness and celebrations. Most of the South East Asian cultures celebrate the full moons after the autumn equinox. Our blog also provides information on every full moon date and new moon dates. Chinese mythology has an interesting legend behind the celebration of the mooncake festival. 

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Story Behind Mid Autumn Mooncake Festival

The festival is one of the biggest Chinese festivals after the Chinese New Year that falls in February. People wish each other happy mid mooncake festival and invite friends and relatives to join the family dinner. Many celebratory and recreation activities take place during this day.

Here we have briefed the story behind mid-autumn festival. The story has a mention in one of the books of Chinese mythology. There are various myths but the one we have mentioned is the most popular mooncake festival story.

The story is about an ancient Hero named Hou Yi who was very powerful. As per the legend, ten suns were rising in the sky causing great catastrophe for the people and nature. Hou Yi used his might and shot down nine out of the ten suns. His prowess impressed the Queen of Heaven who sent him an elixir that will make him an immortal deity in the sky. This way, the Queen wanted Hou Yi to be with her in heaven. However, Hou Yi loved his beautiful wife Chang dearly and did not want to go to the heavens without her. Hence, he did not drink the potion. Instead, he told one of the assistants to keep a guard on the potion.

Once, Hou Yi went out for a hunting trip. During his absence, one of the assistants tried to steal the elixir. But Chang drank it while stopping her. This made Change fly into the sky to become immortal. But due to her great love for Hou Yi, she remained very close to the earth. When Hou Yi returned from his hunting trip, he discovered all that happened and became very sad. He saw Change in the form of a beautiful moon in the Sky and offered food and other offerings to her. He also kept gazing at her out of bereavement. Hence, every year people worship the moon on this night and moon-gazing is also very popular.

full moon 2021

We are sure you loved this story of mooncake festival. Autumn season brings out all the hidden colours of nature. The first day of autumn is 23rd September 2021 and it begins the fall season in the Northern Hemisphere. The whole world celebrates autumn in the form of various festivals including mid autumn festival, Diwali, Halloween, Chuseok, Otsukimi, All Souls Day, and Tori no Ichi.