The Dharma Force

Moon Festival

Today is the Chinese Moon Festival. On this day, the moon shines the most bright of all year. On this night, if possible, we are supposed to spread a feast in the backyard of our home and everyone sat around under the bright moon light, sing, dance and be merry!
Unfortunately, tonight, it was rainy outside, and the moon hid from us here.
But I do have a couple stories to share with you.
In ancient Chinese myth, the sky used to have 10 suns. Each sun was actually a raven with three feet. Now, the rules of heaven at the time was that each raven will travel the length of the sky during the day, and rest for the night.
Then one day, the ravens said to themselves, "Why should we follow these stupid rules. We should come out whenever we like." So, they came out whenever they please, and the world was in chaos. Sometimes, they came out at night, so there was no night anymore. Sometimes, they came out all at the same time, so the earth was cooked by ten suns.
Finally, one day, one of the human king had just about enough of this. So he shot down nine ravens, and wounded the last one. And he chased after the last sun and made it promise to rise and set at a regular time.
So for his heroic deed, he was awarded with a magic pill by the gods. If he ate the pill, he would ascend to heaven immediately. But he was reluctant to do that because of his beloved queen. What would happen to her if he did that?
Now, at this point, the thread of the story diverged into different directions.
One legend said there was a evil minister who wanted the pill for himself. So he poisoned the king, and tried to take the pill. The queen Chang Er swollowed the pill to spoil his plan.
Another legend said that the Queen Chang Er got curious of the locked up pill, and she found a way to try to taste it.
And yet another legend said that she got envious of her husband's chance to become immortal, so she took the pill without him knowing about it.
But the end result was same. She took the pill on the night of the moon festival, and ascended to the moon. To this day, she lived there alone in a huge palace, with only a jade bunny as her companion, and mourning her lost husband.
Tragic, huh? The lesson of the story was to be careful of what you wish for. Immortality was not you thought it was.
The other story was about the moon cakes we ate at the moon festival. The legend started on one of the moon festival in the Yuan Dynasty.
Yuan Dynasty was actually ruled by the Mongolian Khans. Their rule of China was harsh and brutal. Finally, the people rebelled. Their first meeting was set on the day of the moon festival. And they hid their plan and their communique on a piece of paper and put into a set of round cakes. So instead of passing around pieces of paper which could rouse suspicions, they passed out the cakes.
The tradition survived the rebellion, and the moon cakes became part of the feast.
But you won't find any pieces of paper in them though.
Maybe that part of the tradition got passed down in another way, --- The Fortune Cookies.