Flushings Moon Festival

The story of the Moon Festival begins around 2170 BC and continues today when, on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, Chinese people everywhere come together to celebrate. During the festival, which is also known as the mid-autumn festival, families and friends watch the moon, which is said to be at its fullest and most brilliant that night.
On September 13, the Flushing Development Center is sponsoring a day-long Moon Festival celebration for Flushing residents of all ethnicities to honor the essence of unity and solidarity. The program begins at 11 a.m. with a street fair in the parking lot of the Flushing Mall at 39th Avenue and Prince Street. From 6 to 7 p.m., a lantern parade will light up the night on Main Street between Flushing Mall and the Botanical Garden. At 7 p.m., there will be a multicultural performance at the Botanical Garden and the evening will climax with a fireworks display beginning at 8 p.m.
As the festival is an occasion for reunion, many Chinese families get together and enjoy traditional moon cakes, which are baked pastries filled with lotus seed paste and a salted duck egg yolk. Modern tastes, and the high cost of lotus seed paste, have led to variations using red bean paste, mung bean paste, mixed nuts, dried fruits and even meats.
Legend has it that these cakes helped fuel a rebellion. During the Yuan dynasty (1280-1368 AD), China was ruled by the Mongolian people, but the leaders from the previous dynasty, the Sung dynasty (960-1280 AD), were unhappy at submitting to foreign rule. In order to plan their rebellion without being discovered, the crafty rebels, who knew the Moon Festival was drawing near, baked their messages into moon cakes. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels overthrew the government and established the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 AD). Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate the legend.
The Moon Festival is also based on legend, one which dates back far into the past. The earth once had ten suns circling over it, each of which took its turn to shine on the land. But one day, all 10 suns appeared in the sky and the heat was so intense that it scorched the earth. An archer named Hou Yi took his bow and, possibly at the emporers request, shot nine suns from the sky, leaving only one. From here, the story takes on different endings. In one version, the bold Hou Yi steals the elixir of life from a goddess. His wife, Chang Er, in the hopes of saving the people from the tyrannical Hou Yi, drinks the elixir. She found herself floating up, all the way to the moon, where she can be seen.
In another version, Hou Yi was also a talented architect, and a goddess commissioned him to build a palace of multicolored jade. His work pleased the goddess so completely that she rewarded him with the possibility of everlasting life in the form of a pill of immortality. Hou Yi was to wait a year before swallowing the pill, during which he would fast and pray, so he hid the pill in his home. Hous wife, the divinely beautiful Chang Er, found the pill and, not knowing what it was, swallowed it. She was lifted up, bound for eternal banishment on the moon. As she soared upward, her husband tried to follow her but was swept away by a typhoon.
Chang Ers divine beauty enhanced the brilliance of the moon and now people gather during each moon festival to admire her.