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For those of you interested,
The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is almost here!!

The Mid-Autumn Festival is marked by 8/15 of Chinese lunar calendar, which is
9/27 this year.  It has been celebrated since Song Dynasty (960-1279).  Look
like this year's moon view will be a little weird as we will be having
lunar eclipse.  Got your mooncake yet??  I love those but they are so
expensive.  Look like I won't be eating them this year.

There are 3 legends and a real story associated with Mid-Autumn Festival, the
flying of Chon-Er (Chang-O) to the moon, the chopping of Cassia tree by Wu
Gong on moon, the medicine-mixing rabbit on the moon, and the first real
usage of MoonCake, which happened in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD).

****

Chon-Er was the wife of ancient Chinese archer hero Ho-Yi.  He was
supposedly a minor deity that save mankind from destruction by shooting
down 9 out 10 suns that was originally present in the sky.  The suns were
the sons of Jade Emperor though, so he and his wife was punished by
becoming a mortal.  He was a wise ruler and helped the people by slaying a
huge snake, tiger, and bird that is harrasing people.  However, he was
later corrupted by the power and became a tyrant that seek immortality. 
To make sure that the tyranny wasn't eternal, Chon-Er swallowed both pill
for immortality that he obtained and the overdosing power of it send her
flying to the moon.

****

Wu Gong was another person who look for immortality and the gods punish
his pride by making him chop down a tree in moon for eternity.  The tree
heal itself after every blow so it look like he will be up there for a
while....  A story from Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) literature.

****

There was a hermit that has three servants or friends, they are fox, monkey,
and rabbit.  There was a famine and the hermit is dying of sickness.   The
three animals try to look for food that could help hermit survive.  The
fox managed to find some dry wood for fire, monkey found some dried fruit.
The rabbit could not find any food though, so, it decide to sacrifice
itself by jumping into the fire and offer itself up as the food.  This act
moved the _____ (main Buddhist/Hindu deity) that it was offered spiritual
immortality in the moon.  Story from a Buddhist literature in Tang Dynasty.

****

The first time a mooncake was used is near the end of Yuan Dynasty before
Ming Dynasty (ca. 1360AD).  Mongolians rule China during Yuan Dynasty, which
was started by Genghis Khan.  The Han people resent Mongolian rule and they
call them "Da-Zi" ("barbarian"??).  The practice of making 20 houses of
civilian support a soldier with total obedience is even less popular.  The
soldier also don't need to pay for anything.

Ju Yuan-Zon is the first emperor of Ming Dynasty.  One time he need to take
control of a fortified city under Mongolian rule that has mountain in the
back and river in the front (difficult to take).  The only way it could
have been done successfully is with the help of people inside.  His
assistant Liu Bo-Wen came up with the idea of using some kind of cake as a
method of communication.  Liu sent in two soldiers as cake-sellers that
walk around with cart in the city.  Most people are given an ordinary cake,
but Han people are given a special type of cake that has a red dot in the
middle.....

The red dotted cake is actually empty with a paper inside that said... "On
Mid-Autumn Night, Kill Da-Zi, Welcome liberating army."  The Mongolian did
not suspect anything wrong until the night, which was too late.  The city
was taken easily.....  and that's why some moon cake has red dot in the
middle today....

You can find information about Mid-Autumn Festival on 9/27 and other
Chinese cultural days in the page below from Government Information Office
in Taiwan:

http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/festival_c/index_e.htm

They have cute cartoons and a little animation too....  also available in
Chinese, Japanese, French, and German.

I tried to look for same info on PRC homepage but cannot find any!!  Does
anybody know whether PRC government actually have a homepage??

--
Ben Hsieh
Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia 30332 
E-mail: gt1762a@prism.gatech.edu
Homepage: http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gt1762a/