Lunar Lessons: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Mid-Autumn Fest

There’s more to the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节 zhōngqiū jié) than a nice, long weekend and random boxes of semi-edible mooncakes – here are 10 facts about the holiday you probably didn’t know:

Beijing’s totem, 兔儿爷 tù'er yé ("General Rabbit"), is closely related to the mythology surrounding the Mid-Autumn Festival. According to the legend, the capital was once struck by a plague – nearly every household was affected and no medicine seemed to make a difference. 嫦娥 cháng'é (the moon goddess), anguished to see the suffering and prayers of the people and told Jade Rabbit to go down among the mortals to cure them. He took the form of a young girl, went household to household to heal the plague-ridden, while refusing to accept any gifts/compensation except clothes. Then, every time he went to a new place, he would wear a new outfit/guise – sometimes as a man, sometimes as a woman – and he rode horses, deer, lions, and tigers around the city to reach as many of the afflicted as possible. Only after he finished healing everybody did he return to the Moon Palace and today Beijingers traditionally buy small statues of Tu’er Ye around the Mid-Autumn Festival for good luck.

China has several versions of the Moon Goddess myth involving jade rabbits and immortality pills, but the Vietnamese version is more visceral: legend has it that the Moon Goddess was the wife of a man named Cuoi and was banished to the moon for peeing on a sacred banyan tree. Well behaved women seldom make history, indeed.

Can’t stand mooncakes? You’re not alone – the Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1376) were known to hate them so much an entire rebellion against them was planned by Han Chinese insurgents who placed secret messages inside mooncakes that were then transported by lantern-bearing messengers – thus giving a whole new context to the modern-day salted duck-egg yolk center. An alternate version attributes the tradition to Tang Dynasty Emperor Taizong, who was presented with small, round proto-mooncakes as a gift from an emissary from what is now Tibet.

If you’re looking for supercharged skin and more bang for your buck when it comes to buying expensive cosmetics, traditional Daoist holiday rituals also include the offerings of bath-salts, lotions, and beauty aids to Chang'e for her blessing.

Mid-Autumn Festival was also considered "Chinese Valentine’s Day" in ancient times, a tradition rooted in 月下老人 yuè xià lǎorén – literally "the Old Man in the Moon" – a sort of Chinese cupid, only in the form of a wisened old man.

During the festival in ancient times, silk-makers used to cook a pot of 粥 zhōu (rice porridge) as an offering to rats to avoid having them eat their precious silkworms.

Down south there is a tradition of wearing pomelo rinds on your head so Chang'e can spot you and answer your prayers for a son as she gazes down from the heavens – the Chinese name for pomelo is 柚子 yòuzi – which sounds a bit like "to have a son" – 有子 yǒu zi.

Mid-Autumn Festival does not always occur during a full moon. According to Gochengdoo.com:

Speaking of which, the humble mooncake has also become a source of controversy in the past, with 18 countries, including Germany, Spain, Indonesia, France, Brazil, Qatar, Hungary, Belgium, Russia, Congo, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, Czech Republic, the Philippines, Estonia, Switzerland, Burma, and Mexico, having banned them previously, and a proposed mooncake tax had people up in arms over the country’s tax system.

This article originally appeared on our sister publication beijingkids.