Chinese Moon Festival (Mid-Autumn Festival) - Zhong Qui Jier

The Mid-Autumn festival is also known as the Moon festival. This holiday is similar to Thanksgiving in the United States. The holiday occurs in the month of September around the 25th. At this time of the year, the moon is round and brighter than any other time in the year. This festival also celebrates the moon goddess, Chang-O.

The tale starts when the earth had ten suns. People lived in agony, and each day they begged Heaven for help. The Jade Emperor heard their prayers, and sent his best archer down to earth. The archer's name was Hou Yi. After accomplishing the task of shooting down nine suns, the people on earth crowned him as king of the people.

However, Hou Yi became a tyrant and people once again lived in despair. Hou Yi had a beautiful wife named Change-Er. In order to escape from her husband, she stole an elixir from him. After consuming the elixir, she began to fly and flew all the way to the moon. Hou Yi loved his wife so much that he could not pull the trigger and shoot the moon down.