Sunday, October 4, 2009

Celebrating the moon

Yesterday we were invited to celebrate Mid-Autum Moon Festival with a local Taiwanese woman. This holiday is based on a lunar calendar, so is on a different day each year. There are a few stories behind the holiday - each with many versions.

One of them, from what I understand, is about Houyi and Chang'e. Houyi was an archer who shot down 9 of the suns that were circling the Earth, leaving only one. He was given two pills which contained the elixer for eternal life. His wife, Chang'e, took her pill before she was supposed to and ended up (in some versions she was banished, others she simply floated up) on the moon.

Many Taiwanese families get together and have bbqs, eat moon cakes, pomelos and many people light fireworks. We sampled many varieties of moon cake (though not the more traditional Taiwanese moon cakes because they had pork in them) and had pomelos and tea.

Picture from here