Best wishes for the Mid-Autumn Festival

中秋节快乐! 
Zhōng qiū jié kuài lè!
Happy mid-autumn festival!

Why is the festival called the “Mid-autumn” Festival?

First things first. If you break down the Chinese name 中秋节 (Zhōng qiū jié), you get 中[zhōng] (middle) + 秋[qiū] (autumn) + 节[jié] (holiday). Why is that?

To us, the name of this festival, which is “Mid-autumn Festival,” begs the question: Why is this festival called the Mid-Autumn festival held on the first day of Autumn?

This year, the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival happens to fall on September 21st, the beginning of Fall. But that’s not what one should focus on. What’s important to know is that this festival, like all Chinese festivals, follows the lunar calendar. 中秋节 is celebrated each year on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Because that’s the day the Autumn harvest ends. Incidentally, 秋  also means “Harvest time.”  The 15th is also the middle of the month, and the 8th lunar month is the middle of autumn. Hence the name, Mid-Autumn.
In our western calendar, its date changes slightly every year and ranges from mid-September to early October.

A magical way to celebrate the full moon

Okay, now that’s out of the way, what is this Chinese festival? What magical mid-autumn festival traditions are there? What do we do during it? This traditional Chinese festival is all about the full moon.

When the moon shines the brightest, Chinese people worldwide celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival.

Mid-autumn Festival Traditions

Gaze at the moon and make wishes

On this day, in China, the moon shines at its brightest. The Chinese believe it’s the purrfect time to send prayers for good luck. In ancient times, they would wish for a great next harvest next year, and now, they wish each other luck in life and business. That’s why the festival is sometimes called the Moon festival. Lanterns are often lit and sent out into the starry sky, carrying with them our wishes.

Join in the fun with mooncakes

What else? Ah yes, you’re going to like this next part. The mooncake festival is all about eating, and everyone should partake in at least one of the delicious Mid-Autumn festival food traditions. Yes, to celebrate the moon, we eat delicious mooncakes filled with all sorts of things. The fillings may be traditional lotus seed paste, egg yolk, red bean paste, or more innovative. That’s why this festival is also sometimes called the Mooncake festival.

The mooncakes are elaborately decorated, with patterns usually depicting the festival’s legends. Mooncakes now range from the traditional kind, rich and dense, with usually a duck egg in the center,

to modern takes on them, with a more delicate flavor and made with rice flour, such as the snowflake skin mooncakes. You’ll even find some iced, filled with ice cream. Luckily for us, stores and pastry shops usually sell mooncakes in small sizes, sometimes even bite-sized, which allows you to sample several.

Kick off October with some quality family time

The full moon also represents a family reunion. Due to that, the festival is also a big family moment, and getting together is a crucial Mid-Autumn festival tradition. Everyone gets three days off for it! If you’re in China or with a Chinese family, you’ll typically have a big celebratory meal with your family. You’ll eat, talk and sit together and enjoy the glorious moon. You can also have this experience with your Nincha family on the Ninchanese app in a special Mid-Autumn-themed world! In the Dialogue, you’ll be learning with Yocha a quote from a famous Mid-Autumn poem and will chat about the Mid-Autumn Festival.

When did the Mid-Autumn festival really begin?

No one knows for sure, but we do know this festival is thousands of years old!

Over 2000 years ago

The earliest records of the Mid-Autumn festival found are over 2000 years old, during the Han Dynasty.

In the 10th century AD, the festival date became fixed.

From there, the celebration steadily grew in popularity. As early as the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), the festival began being celebrated all over China, with much of the Mid-Autumn festival traditions appearing then. At the time, the date for the Mid-Autumn festival still varied. In the Song dynasty (960 – 1279 AD),  the festival’s date became officially fixed. It has become a yearly custom every since and is still a festival that means a lot to Chinese people worldwide. Did you know, however, that this festival only became a public holiday in 2008?

The Legends of the Autumn Full Moon Festival

Many have written poems and stories about the moon festival, and there are many legends around the Mid-Autumn festival. Among those, Chang’e Flying to the Moon is the most widely known.

Chang’e, Goddess of Heaven

It goes like this:
Once upon a time, Chang’e was married to Hou Yi, a real hotshot at the time (what?! he literally was! He was a heroic archer who shot down nine of the ten suns believed to have existed in ancient times).

Chang’e bringing mooncakes on a platter for the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival

Tasked with protecting an elixir that would allow Houyi to ascend directly to Heaven, Chang’e found herself forced to drink it. Then, desperate to stay close to her love, she managed to fly to the moon, the nearest place to Earth in heaven. There, she eventually adopted an immortal pet rabbit (that’s a different story), and that’s why ever since she’s been represented this way.

Chang’e and her rabbit

It is believed that Hou Yi, who sorely missed Chang’e, would serve the food she liked best when the full moon shone the brightest. Awwww. And that’s how, according to the legend, the Mid-Autumn festival began.

Mooncakes to fight the Mongols

There is another Mid-Autumn folktale so meowsome it sounds like a legend, except it actually happened.
In the late Yuan Dynasty (1271 to 1368 AD), people were unhappy with their rulers, the Mongols, and so, the resistance wanted to plot an uprising. To keep their messages hidden, a counselor had the brilliant idea of hiding notes inside the mooncakes, indicating when the uprising should occur. The revolt was very successful, and so, from then on, each year, the new ruler rewarded his subjects with mooncakes to commemorate that fateful day.

Since then, eating mooncakes took on a different meaning and has become even more of a tradition.

Talk about the Mid-Autumn festival in Chinese

Want to discover more about this festival? Then the new content on Ninchanese is precisely what you need. So check it out now; it’s available for free, this week only!

Three Special Event Stages for you on Ninchanese

A unique themed world to celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival, this week only!

There’s a new pop-up advanced world for you to discover for the occasion! Join in the Mid-Autumn festival celebrations with this themed exclusive world. In it, you can:

• Learn vocabulary to understand and discuss the Mid-Autumn festival
• Build sentences to talk and wish someone a happy Mid-Autumn festival in Mandarin
• Express yourself in Chinese: Learn to speak about the Mid-Autumn festival in the new dialogue
• Train your ear: Listening practice to be ready to talk about the festival in Chinese

The best part? It’s free all this week! So hurry! It’ll soon be gone.

Best paired with a yummy mooncake to keep your brain juices flowing. Enjoy and happy Chinese learning!

The Nincha Team

Stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Try the best way to learn Chinese today.
Ninchanese is free to use!

Sign up now

The post Marvelous Mid-Autumn Festival Traditions and Stories appeared first on Ninchanese.

In China’s long history, there’s a persistent mooncake folktale that goes around: mooncakes played a special role and helped overthrow a ruling power. Did you know about this? Let’s explore this fun mooncake folktale.

Rebelling against the Mongols

Here’s the story, in a nutshell. First of all, it takes places during 元朝, the Yuan dynasty, which was ruled by Mongols  (1271 to 1368 AD). Towards the end of the dynasty, several Han generals decided to secretly organize a revolt. The Mongol rule was hard on the Chinese and they wanted to end it.

The generals were tightly watched by the Mongols so they had to find a clever way to spread a message to the population, unbeknownst to the Mongols. See, because of how strictly the Han Chinese were controlled, Han Chinese families weren’t all allowed to own knives. At the time, only one of 10 households was allowed to have a knife! As a result, sending a message to the whole population to gather as many weapons as possible was, therefore, essential to the revolt.

The mooncake folktale to save the Han Chinese

At that time, the Chinese already celebrated 中秋节, the Mid-Autumn festival. The festival, which first appeared during the Song dynasty (420 AD!) was already an important celebration in China. Therefore, the resourceful generals decided to use the Mid-Autumn festival to rebel. Hence, they choose mooncakes as a means to communicate with the population and communicate their desire to get rid of the Mongols.

Hence, they had special mooncakes made and then distributed them to the Chinese. These special mooncakes all contained a secret message. What did the message say? It seems like it was something along the lines of “On the 15th of the 8th lunar month, let’s all rebel!” How cunning!

Other versions of this folktale  say messages were probably printed on the surfaces of mooncakes and formed parts of a puzzle. To read the message, you had to assemble parts of the mooncakes to reveal the message. Since the message needed to stay secret, people would then eat the mooncakes.

We don’t know if these stories are true, but it’d be amazing if they were, wouldn’t you agree?

The Nincha Team

Stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Try the best way to learn Chinese today.
Ninchanese is free to use!

Sign up now

The post Mooncake folktale: A mooncake to rebel against the mongols appeared first on Ninchanese.

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th of the 8th lunar month each year, which happens to be today, September 15th this year. It’s, therefore, finally time to eat yummy 月饼 mooncakes! If you’ve been following us on Facebook or Twitter lately, you know your Chinese teachers here at Ninchanese, especially Master Yocha and Nincha, have been drooling in anticipation over the idea of eating these yummy treats on this day. Why? Because 中秋月饼 mooncakes are customarily eaten on that day to celebrate the festival!

Happy mooncake eating!

Ninchanese is an incredible app for learning Chinese!

” I actually graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a MA in Chinese.
I’ve used Ninchanese daily, and it has helped me a lot!  “

 – Connor, Ninchanese User

Try Ninchanese, an award-winning method to learn Chinese today:

Start Learning Now

Just make sure you don’t overdo it, like Nincha did below:

Poor Nincha!

Happy 中秋节!

The Nincha Team

Stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Try the best way to learn Chinese today.
Ninchanese is free to use!

Sign up now

The post Happy mooncake eating! appeared first on Ninchanese.

Mid Autumn Festival: how did it all start?

Curious to know more about the origins of the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon festival? Check out this cute and interesting ebook! Caution, flash-haters, this ebook is in flash and can be slow to load in the beginning…making it a good excuse to go chow down on another mooncake while it’s loading!

Enjoy eating yummy 月饼
yuè bǐng – mooncakesas much as Nincha is!

The Nincha Team

Ninchanese is a new platform where you’ll have fun learning Chinese. We’re still working on it for now, so sign up to be invited to the beta when we launch! And stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Weibo. 

The post Happy Mid Autumn Festival appeared first on Ninchanese.