The long awaited Mid-Autumn Festival or best known as the Mooncake Festival is just around the corner. ✨
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Lantern Festival, Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is a traditional festival celebrated by the East Asian people and the East Asian cultural sphere. It is a festival of celebration for the people’s hard work and harvest back in the days. Nowadays, people mainly celebrate the Moon Festival as a time for family reunions.
In conjunction with the Mooncake festival, our batik artists have produced 3 very symbolic Batik face masks with the festival’s theme. Here are the meaning of the 3 different designs:
The jade rabbit is the main character in one of the famous Chinese Mid-Autumn stories. Once upon a time, there were three animals living in a forest: a fox, a rabbit, and a monkey. Three immortals, pretending to be old beggars, went through the forest asking for food. The fox and the monkey quickly offered them food. The rabbit, who had no food but very pious, felt guilty. She said, “I’m so sorry I couldn’t offer any food to help you, but I can give myself,” and jumped into the fire. The three immortals were moved by the rabbit’s sacrifice, and decided to make the rabbit an immortal, sending her to live in the Moon Palace with Goddess Chang E. Therefore nowadays when Chinese people decorate Mid-Autumn Festival, they would use rabbit as one of the decorations.
In Chinese beliefs, the full moon is the symbol for a family reunion. Many famous ancient poets wrote poems about the moon and expressed their homesickness. When people look at the moon, it reminds them of their families and homeland. Nowadays, people still like appreciating the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival in China. Chinese family members have dinner together in the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival. After dinner, they may talk about their work, the children, and their future plans.
It was described as a day for emperors to celebrate the year’s harvest by giving offerings to the moon and hosting a great feast. The festival started more than 2,000 years ago as a post-autumn harvest celebration, which was devoted to thanking the gods.
