religions & cultures of moon-worship

8/2/2019 Religions & Cultures of Moon-worship

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RELIGIONS AND CULTURES OF MOON WORSHIP

compiled by Dee Finney

updated 10-9-03

Feng Shui Facts:Li is the sun and Kan is the moon. Kun is the dark moon. Qian is the full moon."

THE FULL MOONS OF THE YEAR

BUY ACREAGE ON THE MOON

A GREAT GIFT FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILYOR FOR FUTURE INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY

THIS IS THE REAL THING - NOT FAKE!!!

Page 1 of 12RELIGIONS AND CULTURES OF MOON WORSHIP

3/10/2012http://www.greatdreams.com/moon/moon_worship.htm


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A SECOND FULL MOON IN A MONTH IS CALLED A 'BLUE MOON'

MOON WORSHIP

Although the moon has not had great prominence in the history of religion, the worship of it hasbeen known since earliest recorded timein the oldest literatures of Egypt, Babylonia, India, andChinaand still exists today in various parts of the world, particularly among certain African

and Native American groups. Moon worship is founded on the belief that the phases of the moonand the growth and decline of plant, animal, and human life are related. In some societies foodwas laid out at night to absorb the rays of the moon, which were thought to have power to curedisease and prolong life. Among the Baganda of central Africa it was customary for a mother tobathe her newborn child by the light of the first full moon. The moon was frequently equated with

wisdom and justice, as in the worship of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Mesopotamian god Sin.In general, however, the moon has been the basis for many amorous legends and somesuperstitions (madmen were once considered to be moonstruck, hence the term lunatic) and isparticularly important in the practice of astrology.

Many ancient peoples regarded the Moon as the chief of the two luminaries. The sun was ofsmaller importance than the moon in the eyes of the Babylonian astrologers.

The Assyrians and the Chaldeans referred to the time of the Moon-god as the oldest period in thememory of the people: before other planetary gods came to dominate the world ages, the Moonwas the supreme deity. Such references are found in the inscriptions of Sargon II (ca. -720)(2) and

Nabonidus (ca. -550).(3) The Babylonian Sinthe Moonwas a very ancient deity: Mount Sinaiowes its name to Sin.

Assyrian art reflects this moon influence far more strikingly than that of Panammu I.The figure ofhimself which he caused to be carved in relief on the left side of the palace-inscription is in theAssyrian style , and so too is another of his reliefs from Zenjirli. On the latter Bar-rekub is

represented seated upon his throne with eunuch and scribe in attendance, while in the field is theemblem of full moon and crescent, here ascribed to "Ba`al of Harran", the famous centre ofmoon-worship in Northern Mesopotamia.

JANUARY WOLF MOON

FEBRUARY ICE MOON

MARCH STORM MOON

APRIL GROWING MOON

MAY HARE MOON

JUNE MEAD MOON

JULY HAY MOON

AUGUST CORN MOON

SEPTEMBER HARVEST MOON

OCTOBER BLOOD MOON

NOVEMBER SNOW MOON

DECEMBER COLD MOON




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MORE

The Moon, appearing as a body larger than the Sun, was endowed by the imagination of thepeoples with a masculine role, while the Sun was assigned a feminine role. Many languagesreserved a masculine name for the Moon.(4) It was probably when the Moon was removed to a

greater distance from the earth and became smaller to observers on the earth, that another name,usually feminine, came to designate the Moon in most languages.

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HEBREW MYTHOLOGY OF THE DELUGE, CHANGE IN THE SUN AND MOON ANDMANKIND

Hebrew mythology assigns to the period preceding Adams expulsion different geophysical andbiological conditions. The sun shone permanently on the Earth, and the Garden of Eden, placed inthe East, was, it must be conceived, under perpetual rays of the Dawn. The earth was not wateredby rain, but mist ascending from the ground condensed as dew upon the leaves. The plantslooked only to the earth for nourishment. Man was of exceedingly great stature: The dimensions

of mans body were gigantic. His appearance was unlike that of later men: His body wasoverlaid with a horny skin. But a day came and the celestial illumination ceased: The sun . . .had grown dark the instant Adam became guilty of disobedience. (3) The flames of the ever-turning sword terrified Adam (Genesis 3:24). In another legend it is told that the celestial light

shone a little in the darkness. And then the celestial light ceased, to the consternation of Adam.The illumination of the first period never returned. The sky that man was used to see neverappeared before him again: The firmament is not the same as the heavens of the first day. Theday of Genesis, as I have already noted, is said to be equal to a thousand years.

It was after the fall of man, according to Hebrew tradition, that the sun set for the first time: The

first time Adam witnessed the sinking of the sun, he was seized with anxious fears. All the night hespent in tears. When day began to dawn, he understood that what he had deplored was but thecourse of nature. It was also then that the seasons began. This is told in the following story:Adam noticed that the days were growing shorter and feared lest the world be darkened . . . butafter the winter solstice he saw that the days grew longer again.

The earth also underwent changes: Independent before, she was hereafter to wait to be watered

by the rain from above. (4) The variety of species diminished. Man, according to Hebrew legends,decreased in size; there was a vast difference between his later and his former statebetween hissupernatural size then, and his shrunken size now. (5) He also lost his horny skin. The whole ofnature altered its ways.

References

Quoted in Athanasius Kircher, Turris Babel sive Archonotologia (Amsterdam, 1679), p. 134.

The very angels and the celestial beings were grieved by the transgression of Adam. The moonalone laughed wherefore God . . . obscured her light. Ginzberg, Legends, I, 80.

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DAOISM




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Daoism is based on a book written by Lao Zi who lived around the same time as Confucius.

Daoism teaches that achieving the balance of the yin and yang is the key to achieving spiritualpeace.

Origin of the Stellar Sovereigns of the Five Planets and Seven Stars

The Stellar Sovereigns of the Five Planets and Seven Stars1 are seven Daoist deities. The Five

Planets are the Year Star (Jupiter)1, the Sparkling Deluder (Mars)2, the Grand White Star(Venus)3, the Chronographic Star (Mercury)4, and the Quelling Star (Saturn)5. Together with the

sun and moon, they are called the Seven Stars. Daoism worships the Seven Stars as spirits andcalls them Stellar Sovereigns. In early ancient times, people began to worship the sun, moon andstars. In the Han Dynasties, Esoteric Speculations6 used to foretell the outcomes of human affairs.Daoism regards the sun as Essence of Yang7 and calls it, in a male image, 'Bright, Red andGlorious Supreme Yang Sovereign of the Sun Palace'8, or 'Immortal King of Filial Piety and

Supreme Yang Sovereign of the Sun Palace"9. Daoism regards the moon as Essence of Yin10, andcalls it, in a female image, 'Supreme Yin Primordial Sovereign and Holy Queen of the YellowColour, White Light and Original Essence of the Moon Palace"11, or 'Bright Queen of Filial Pietyand Supreme Yin Sovereign of the Moon Palace"12. According to the section 'On Stars'of the

Seven Slips of a Cloudy Satchel13, each of the Five Planets has its own name and style: in the East,the Perfect Imperial Sovereign of the Year Star14 (or Perfect Sovereign of the Virtue of Wood)15is named Chenglan and styled Qingning. In the South, the Perfect Imperial Sovereign of theSparkling Deluder16 (or Perfect Sovereign of the Virtue of Fire)17 is named Haokong Weichunand styled Sanrong. In the West, the Perfect Imperial Sovereign of the Grand White Star18(or

Perfect Sovereign of the Virtue of Metal)19 is named Haokong Debiao. In the North, the PerfectImperial Sovereign of the Chronographic Star20(or Perfect Sovereign of the Virtue of Water)21 isnamed Qiyuan and styled Jiyuan. In the Centre, the Perfect Imperial Sovereign of the QuellingStar22(or Perfect Sovereign of the Virtue of Earth)23 is named Cangmu and styled Danyan.

2. The Shangqing Cosmology

Shangqing Daoists believed in a celestial realm that was populated by gods, immortals, demonkings, converted spirits and ancestors. These beings were arranged hierarchically according to a

celestial bureaucracy. Furthermore, the human body was seen as a storehouse of these divineagencies, palaces and figures, and patterned according to the constellation of the stars. Forexample, the divinities of the Northern Dipper lived simultaneously in the body as well as in thestars.

3. Visualization in Shangqing Daoism

The Shangqing self-cultivation group of the mid 4th century CE preferred visualization over allother meditative techniques. Visualization, however, was always accompanied by other practices

such as breath control, fasting and reading from sacred texts. Interestingly, the Shangqing methodof visualization was never practiced in the same way by later Daoist traditions.

Robinet describes the various earthly and cosmic excursions that meditators went on throughvisualization. Through earthly excursions, practitioners could explore extraordinary,supernatural places where they could find magical plants, talismans and sacred texts to aid themin their quest for immortality. Excursions to the sun and moon generally encompassed threefeatures. The meditator would accompany the stars on their heavenly journey, nourish in their

effluences and play around in the paradises they protected.




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4. The Northern Dipper

The Northern Dipper (Northern Bushel / Big Dipper / Ursa Major) was and is the central object ofimportant visualization techniques and one of the main divinities of Daoism. It is the center andsource of all things, establishing the inherent order of the universe and foundation of the world.

The Dipper is seen as the pivot of all creative transformations. It is the vertical axis of the universethat is aligned with the spleen in the human body. It establishes the rhythms of the seasons,

distinguishes good and evil and controls good fortune and disaster. Perhaps most importantly, theNorthern Dipper is seen as the gate of access to the heavens. Believers must invoke its divinities topass from death into life.

The Dipper is the symbol and home of the Great Unity, the god Taiyi. It is part of a triad formedbetween the sun, moon and stars. The Northern Dipper is made up of 9 stars (2 visible only toskillful practitioners), each star inhabited by a particular male divinity. In addition, each star in

the Dipper has a corresponding location in the human body. For example, the first star is locatedin the heart. Moreover, the Northern Dipper has beside it a corresponding counterpart/mirrorimage made up of "black stars." The spouses of the male divinities of the Northern Dipper live inthese stars. This "black" constellation forms the material and spiritual soul of the Northern

Dipper.

Shangqing scriptures also view the Northern Dipper as having a corresponding carriage in thesouth. While the Northern Dipper represents the realm of the underworld the Southern Carriageleads the skillful practitioner to eternal life. The divinities of the Northern Dipper are invoked tohelp the believer pass for registration in the Southern Carriage, where the true registers ofimmortality are kept.

See: http://post.queensu.ca/~millerj/rels224students/rels224.06.students.htm

URANTIA

P947:4, 85:5.1 The worship of rocks, hills, trees, and animals naturally developed up through

fearful veneration of the elements to the deification of the sun, moon, and stars. In India andelsewhere the stars were regarded as the glorified souls of great men who had departed from thelife in the flesh. The Chaldean star cultists considered themselves to be the children of the skyfather and the earth mother.

P947:5, 85:5.2 Moon worship preceded sun worship. Veneration of the moon was at its heightduring the hunting era, while sun worship became the chief religious ceremony of the subsequentagricultural ages. Solar worship first took extensive root in India, and there it persisted the

longest. In Persia sun veneration gave rise to the later Mithraic cult. Among many peoples the sunwas regarded as the ancestor of their kings. The Chaldeans put the sun in the center of "the seven

circles of the universe." Later civilizations honored the sun by giving its name to the first day ofthe week.

P947:6, 85:5.3 The sun god was supposed to be the mystic father of the virgin-born sons of destinywho ever and anon were thought to be bestowed as saviors upon favored races. Thesesupernatural infants were always put adrift upon some sacred river to be rescued in anextraordinary manner, after which they would grow up to become miraculous personalities and

the deliverers of their peoples.

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MOON WORSHIP BY ANCIENT CULTURES - FOUND BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS

DISCS IN THE AIR, BUT ALSO IN ANCIENT BARROWS AND BURIAL MOUNDS

All around our world there are numerous ancient disc shaped burial barrows, tumuli, or mounds

that were built to bury our ancestors. When I flew for the Air Force, I noticed many mounds fromthe air in many parts of the world. Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois, Florida, the Middle East, and the

area around Stonehenge in England have many examples that still exist. Thousands were built inAmerica, and 18,000 were built in Britain 5000 years ago during the Bronze Age. Both in Great

Britain and America thousands of flint discs have been found inside the American Indian andBritish burial mounds.

Recent evidence has also uncovered an ancient alphabet that appears to have been usedthroughout the ancient world. The burial barrows are constructed to a precise plan, where the

periphery of a circle is marked by posts and stakes and is called a palisade. Now, 5000 years later,the barrows still maintain their basic structure unless destroyed by grave robbers or modernconstruction projects. Within this palisade the dead were buried and a discoid shaped structurewas built that looks remarkably like present day UFOs. Not only was a disc shape used in

construction but also, each dead body was buried with its own carved disc. Sometimes these smalldiscs came from a hundred miles away and were often carved or chipped from flint stone.Archaeologists claim these disc barrow builders were worshipers of the sun and moon. I askedinvestigator John Thompson his opinion. He stated, our ancestors saw "things" in the sky andintuitively, but probably incorrectly and as modern man is doing, decided that Gods from spacewere/are visiting us. They, however and more astutely than us, made the death-heaven connection.Why bury models of UFOs with themselves if they didn't think that these entities "aboard them"were not connected to the so-called spirit-world they were entering? Its obvious they saw linkagebetween what they observed in the sky and where they believe they were going after dying.

The archeologists maintain that the discs represented sun or moon worship. Drawings andcarvings have been made of the sun and moon for ages, the sun is usually represented as a circle

with lines or rays and the moon is generally crescent shaped. So we can hypothesize that ourancestors, like Ezekiel who saw a UFO in the sky, probably worshipped or at least prayed these

craft would take them to heaven or at least keep their souls alive. Discs are clearly depicted in the2,500 year old palace of Darius at Perseopolis in Iran. I think we can assume the depiction's of disccraft with triple landing gear are accurate and it makes good sense to assume they were in ourskies in ancient times.

These UFO discs have been depicted in 18,000 years old ancient caves in France. The Egyptiansbelieved a metal craft with a metal door carried the souls of the dead who had led a good life.Many of the objects found in the barrows carry out the disc theme and its importance to the

people. Clothing and capes were fastened over the upper chest with a disc measuring two inches in

diameter. Jewelry, early armor and even the chief structures of worship carried out the disctheme. Stonehenge itself covered by wood would make a nicely shaped disc. Ancient sites such asNew Grange in Ireland, believed to be the world's oldest structure is shaped as a disc. It is similarin appearance to the Mound of Kinowth and both have the disc shape with a rim and

representations of windows that faithfully imitate the real object. If the ancients intended toimitate either the moon or the sun their structures would look very different. Almost everywherein the world myths, customs, and religion claim their individual ancestors came from space. Isuggest the history or the world is very different if we recognize the importance of disc UFOs.

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MOON WORSHIP BY PAGANS

In Hindu, "Shiva" is the witness, consciousness, vibration (also called Ma/heshv/ar the remover ofdeath) which is symbolized by the Moon of Night.

In ancient Sumeria this symbol of the 8 ray star was the symbol for God, and the earliest Islamicsymbols used this same eight ray star with the crescent moon to represent their faith under theEvening Star.

Clearly is the mention of the thousand years in the watch of the NIGHT (Psalm 90:4) & we see his

nemesis Satan the theif claim in (1 Thessalonians 5:2) & (2 Peter 3:1) That he comes as a thief inthe Night. Interesting enough so too does the Babylonian Mystery Religion deity of Mithra whowas the angel of the rays of (luciferous) Light between the sun and earth, his enemy was the Night.

Ur = "flame" 1) city in southern Babylonia, city of the Chaldeans, centre of moon worship, homeof Abraham's father, Terah, and departure point for the Abraham's migration to Mesopotamia

and Canaan

The Moon in the Talmudic tradition represents the Messiah.

The crescent moon and Star as the NIGHT , is the symbol for Islam and Rammadan

Allah - the Moon God

The Archeology of The Middle East

The religion of Islam has as its focus of worship a deity by the name of "Allah." The Muslimsclaim that Allah in pre-Islamic times was the biblical God of the Patriarchs, prophets, andapostles. The issue is thus one of continuity. Was "Allah" the biblical God or a pagan god in

Arabia during pre-Islamic times? The Muslim's claim of continuity is essential to their attempt toconvert Jews and Christians for if "Allah" is part of the flow of divine revelation in Scripture,

Moon worship preceded Sun worship in everyprimitive society.The names given to the Moon Goddess

areeceded un worship in every imi

Artemis : Virgin HuntressAphrodite:~ Goddess of Love

Selene: Mystic

Hera: Mature Mother

In Ancient Egypt she is Isis, Hathor, and

Seshat

The Eskimos called her Sedna

The Chinese named her Shing Moon

The Celts called her Morgana

All over the world, rituals were held in herhonor.

Pagans celebrate her on the following dayse

her on the following dayWinter Solstice: December 20-23

Candlemas: February 2nd

Spring Equinox: March 20-23

Beltane: May Day

Summer Solstice: June 20-23

Lughnasadh: August 1st

Fall Equinox: September 20-23

Samhain (Halloween): October 31




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then it is the next step in biblical religion. Thus we should all become Muslims. But, on the other

hand, if Allah was a pre-Islamic pagan deity, then its core claim is refuted. Religious claims oftenfall before the results of hard sciences such as archeology. We can endlessly speculate about thepast or go and dig it up and see what the evidence reveals. This is the only way to find out thetruth concerning the origins of Allah. As we shall see, the hard evidence demonstrates that the godAllah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the Moon-god who was married to the sun goddess and

the stars were his daughters.

Amon, the God of Empire

Lunar Worship--The Great Mother of Darkness.--Anion as a Moon God--Fusion with Ra--Ptah aForm of the Theban Deity--Fenkhu--"and "Fenish" Artisans--Osiris and Amon--Veneration ofReligious Pharaohs--Amon's Wife and Concubine--Conquests of Thothmes I--Rival Claimants tothe Throne--Queen Hatshepsut--Her Famous Expedition--Rise of Thothmes III--A Great

Strategist--His Conquests--The Egyptian Empire --Amon's Poetic Praise--The Emperor'sBuildings and Obelisks.

THE moon god Ah comes into prominence during the Egyptian War of Independence. This

ancient deity must have been closely associated with the Theban religious cult which Ra Apepa,the Hyksos king, singled out for attack, because the name of the queen mother, Ah-hotep, signifies"Ah is satisfied", and that of her victorious son Ah-mes, "born of Ah".

It is highly probable that Ah was the son of the great Mother deity Apet, who was identified withthe female hippopotamus Taurt, "the mighty one", goddess of maternity, and "mother of thegods". At Thebes and Ombos, Osiris was regarded as the son of the sacred hippopotamus. As wehave seen in the Introduction, he was, like Ah, identified with the moon spirit, which symbolizedthe male principle. The Apet hippopotamus was the animal incarnation of the Great Mother; as awater goddess, therefore, Apet links with Nut, who rose from the primordial deep and was "thewaters above the firmament".

At the beginning there was naught save darkness and water. The spirit of the night was the GreatMother, and her first-born was the moon child. Life came from death and light from darkness.Such appears to have been the conception of the worshippers of the sky-and-water goddess andthe lunar god.

On the other hand, the worshippers of the male earth spirit believed that the firmament was madeof metal which was beaten out by the Great Father, Ptah, at the beginning. Ere metal came intouse it may have been conceived that the sky was made of stone. Hathor, the sky goddess, wassignificantly enough "the lady of turquoise", and Ra, the sun god, was in the Fifth Dynastysymbolized by an obelisk.

Osiris, the human incarnation of primitive Nilotic deities, absorbed the attributes of the moonspirit and the male earth spirit. Isis, on the other hand, apparently absorbed those of Nut, the sky-and-water goddess, and of Neith, the earth goddess, who symbolized growth.

As moon worship was of greater antiquity in Egypt than sun worship, and was associated withagricultural rites, the Theban cult must have made popular appeal, and helped to rally the mass ofthe people to throw off the yoke of the Hyksos Ra and Sutekh worshippers. The political

significance of Apepa's order to slay the hippopotami is therefore apparent.

When the influence of the southern conquerors extended to Hermopolis, Ah was merged with




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Thoth, who was originally a lunar deity. In fact, as we have shown in our Introduction, he was

another form of Khonsu. With Mut, "the mother", who is indistinguishable from Apet, Khonsuand Thoth formed a Theban triad. In Nubia, where archaic Mediterranean beliefs appear to havebeen persistent, Thoth was the son of Tefnut, the lioness-headed goddess, who was given arbitraryassociation with Shu, the atmosphere god, by the theorists of Heliopolis. Mut was also depicted atThebes with the head of a lioness.

As we have already suggested, it is possible that Amon was originally the son of Mut-Apet. He mayhave developed as a symbolized attribute of Ah. Fragments of old hymns make reference to him asa lunar deity, and as a "traverser" of space like Khonsu-Thoth. Indeed, even in his hawk-headedform, he retains his early association with the moon, for he wears the solar disk with the lunarcrescent. 1

Amon, like the sons of all the Great Mother deities, represented in his animal forms the "male

principle" and the "fighting principle". He became "the husband of his mother" when the GreatFather and Great Mother conceptions were fused. This process is illustrated in the triad formedby Ptah, the father, Mut, the mother, and Thoth, the son. Ptah's wife Sekhet, with the head of alioness, is indistinguishable from Mut) Tefnut, and Bast.

MORE

In Kabbalah Judaism, the power of the moon, is the symbol of King David (upon seeing the new

moon we say, "David the king of Israel is alive forever").

Similar is The Story told from the Bushmen in Africa who have a lore about the Hare and theMoon where the Moon represents eternity (as the eternal one). Ironically in their lore, this

'Bunny' (like the symbol for the Babylon Easter), is the spoiler or tempest who ruins their chanceat eternal life, much like Satan in the Genesis story.

The Mbuti Pygmies believe in a great being of the sky, lord of storms and rainbows, sometimescalled Creator, and envisaged as an old man with a long beard. He is named Tore and not only did

he make everything but all belongs to him, so that before hunting he is invoked for food. ThePygmies also revere the moon, and some of them say that it was the moon who molded the firstman, covered him with skin and poured blood inside. Another story associates the first couplewith the chameleon, a reptile that figures in many African tales. The dominant Pygmy belief is in

the god of the forest, who is benevolent, and to whom men pay as much respect as they do to theirown parents.

The Yaruba of the Gold Coast, Africa

HOW EASTER DEVELOPED FROM PAGANISM

Easter became the Christianized rebirth of mankind through Christ's death and resurrection.Early missionaries hoped to convert the pagan celebrants to Christianity. They chose to spreadtheir message of faith throughout the populations by taking many of the traditions of theChristian observance of the Resurrection of Christ, which occurred at roughly the same time ofyear, and folding it into the pagan feast of Eostre.

The custom of eating hot cross buns is also said to have Pagan origins. The Saxons ate buns thatwere marked with a cross in honour of Eostre. The ancient Greeks also consumed these types of




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buns in their celebrations of Artemis, Goddess of the hunt (known as Diana to the Romans). And

the Egyptians ate a similar cake in their worship of the Goddess Isis. There are conflicting ideas asto what the cross symbol represents. One suggestion is that horn symbols were stamped on cakesto represent an ox, which used to be sacrificed at the time of the Spring Equinox. Another theoryis that the cross marks on the bun relates to moon worship, whereby the bun represented the fullmoon, and the cross represents its four quarters.

MORE

The timing of Easter Sunday shows its pagan roots, being based upon Sun and Moon worship. Itfalls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21, the nominal date of the SpringEquinox. It can fall on any date from March 22 to April 25th. The sequence is so complicated thatit takes 5.7 million years to repeat a cycle. Eastern Orthodox churches sometimes celebrate Easteron the same day as the rest of Christianity. However if that date does not follow Passover, then the

Orthodox churches delay their Easter - sometimes by over a month.

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In the aeons preceding this one we have seen the evolution from Moon and Goddess worship, toSun and Patriarchal religion to now, the aeon of Horus. The aeon of the exaltation of theindividual. The crowned and conquering child. The preceding aeons have been marked by ourraces rising perception of the laws of nature, and evolving view of itself. In Thelemic doctrine the

aeons can be percieved as,

A The aeon of Isis: Moon worship, Matriarchal earth based religion.

B: The aeon of Osiris: Sun Worship, Patriarchal authoritarian religion based on the formula ofsacrifice for ressurection.

C: The present aeon: The aeon of Horus, the crowned conquering child.

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MODERN CHINESE MOON CAKE CELEBRATIONS

Round and round the story goes

By Majorie Chiew

Pictures by Victor K.K. Ng

THE Mooncake Festival, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival, falls on the 15th day of the eighthlunar month which is Sept 24 this year. Historically, it was a harvest festival for farmers buttraditionally, womenfolk worshipped Chang-E, the moon goddess.

Mooncakes are also known as "reunion cakes" as family members gather to partake of the sweetconfectionery.

Mooncakes are eaten throughout the month before the actual festival day. They make meaningfulgifts for kith and kin.




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In the evenings, children gleefully carry lanterns of all shapes and sizes. The bearing of lanterns

and the origin of mooncakes date back to a 14th century revolt by the Chinese against theMongols.

In 1376, the Chinese overthrew the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty (1280-1376) in an uprising brilliantly

hatched by lantern-bearing messengers who delivered mooncakes with hidden messages.

Legend has it that the time and place of the revolution were concealed in the mooncakes sent tofriends and relatives. The midnight massacre of the Mongols was led by Liu Bowen.

A tiny sachet of oxygen absorber is added to the plastic tray of each mooncake to prevent the cakefrom turning mouldy.

Today, altars are set up outside the house facing the full moon on the night of the festival. The"harvest moon" is at its brightest and roundest this time of the year.

Offerings of mooncakes, mini yams and water caltrops are laid out for Chang-E, also known as

the Moon Lady. Round fruits are offered as the shape symbolises the fullness of the moon and

family harmony.

Some women peel pomelos and mini yams in the belief that they will have a flawless complexion.

Others pray to the moon goddess hoping to be blessed with good husbands.

The classic tale of Chang-E, the beautiful moon goddess, is associated with the Mooncake Festival.Pictures of her in a flowy gown floating to the moon commonly adorn mooncake boxes.

Folklore has it that she was married to the divine archer Hou Yi, who shot nine out of 10 suns thatwere causing havoc. For his deed, the Queen Mother of the West gave him the elixir of life. Chang-E stole her husband's potion of immortality, drank it and found herself floating to the moon.

There she lives out her days in the cold lonely moon palace with a furry rabbit for companion.

A slightly different version says that Hou Yi was a tyrannical ruler. Chang-E drank the magicpotion to prevent him from becoming immortal.

Mechanisation has eased the preparation of lotus paste. Over 100kg of paste are cooked andblended in these metal cauldrons.

Another myth tells of woodcutter Wu Gang who was banished to the moon and became Chang-E'sfriend and servant. The Jade Emperor punished Wu Gang by ordering him to cut down a cassiatree. It was a task that could never be completed as the tree is immortal and would grow back

each time it is felled.

Moon worship has its roots in China's Sung (960-1127), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911)dynasties, when commoners and emperors alike observed the practice.

Imperial chefs made mooncakes over a metre in diameter with designs of the moon goddess, themoon palace and cassia tree. Ordinary mooncakes were several centimetres in diameter.

During the Qing dynasty, mooncakes were renamed "moonflowers." In Mandarin, the word




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yuebing for mooncakes sounds like "monthly sickness" (or menstruation).

The Empress Dowager Ci Xi staged rituals for an elaborate moon festival lasting from the 13ththrough the 17th day of the eighth lunar month.

Some Chinese families today still stay up late to observe the occasion - eating mooncakes, sippingtea and gazing at the beautiful moon.

It is regarded the perfect moment if someone catches the moon's reflection in the centre of his or

her teacup.

RECIPE FOR CHINESE MOONCAKE

MORE CHINESE MOON CELEBRATIONS AND CAKES

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