The border vidette., 1928-12-08
THE CHINESE MOON FEAST

Shanghai, China. Nov. 8, 1928
Dear Editor Border Vidette:-
Here comes another letter from
the bottom side of the world. +"
It may be of interest to the read.
ers of your most excellent paper.
We have recently bad one of
China's chief holidays. For
more than a week [ noticed signs
of its coming. Great stacks of
moon cakes" in brightly color
ed packets were shown in many
stores. Beautiful lanterns we're
seen along the streets. Every.
thing was in such gay style it
made one thipk of a coming
Christmas. 1t was the Chinese
Moon-feast and Mid Autumn
Festival. In their feasting it
recalled our Thanksgiving Day.
The Chinese 10Th of the 9th
month is called "Tsoong Tsiu"-
Middle Autumn. On that day
they have theatricals before all
the gods in the temple and burn
the "Shaung-teo"-incense bush
ell. This bushel-like measure is
made of incense sticks. The
largest bushels" sometimes
measure as much as 20 feet in
diameter. In the middle of the
'bushel" is a long. large stick of
incense made up of thousands of
thin incense sticks the size of
vefmicelli. On the afternoon
and night of this day each fami
~ also burns an incense bushel
at home. These are smaller
than the ones burned in the
temple. Ga this day they who
can so afford eat moon-cakes and
all kinds of nice things. The
incense bushel is decorated with
flags and many-colored dragon
gates something as children at
home put candles on their birth
day cakes; but the children in
China take the flags and dragon
gate decorations from the bushel
before it is burnt, and have great
delight in playing with these,
marching up and down the
streets. $
I asked the Chinese why they
burn the incense bushel and eat
the moon-cake, and worship the
moon with candles, incense and
food on this day. They answer.
ed that there are many reasons
for it and many stories are told
about it. One of the reasons is
because there is a lady god in
the moon. Her name is Zaung
noo. She is said to be exceed
ingly beautiful. From the be
ginning of time to the end there
never was nor will be one as
beautiful as she. She was once
upon time woman of this
world; but became displeased
with her husband all the world
and fed to the moon. On this
18th the real story of why she
fed is acted out in the long the
atrical plays attended by throngs
of people. In ancient times on
the 18th of the 9th month when
they burned the incense bushel
the sweet fragrance would go
high up to the moon goddess.
She took pleasure in it and man
ifested her approval by coming
near earth riding on q cloud and
| people could see her beautiful
face. But now mems hearts
have become wicked, and the
world is full of sin, so the in
cense is not so pure as formerly
and it does not rise so high as to
reach the goddess in her palace
and SO, not enjoying it's fra
GRANGE. she comes no more on
the clouds; but the people still
offer incense and hope she will
appear sometime.
They say that in the moon this
goddess has a most beautiful
castle. 1t is called the "Yuih
Koong"-Moon Palace. Only one
human has ever seen its glories.
Once, during the Dong Dynasty
q Chinese king. called Ming
Wong, by the magic of q holy
monk, was enabled to mount ur
from the earth 10 the Moon Cas-
tie to hear the music and see its
beauty. He was allowed te
stand outside for only a very
few minutes. By that time the
goddess knew that the king ol
man was there. She was very
angry at the monk tor leading
the king to her holy land. Soor
from the castle came most un
| pleasant sounds. The monk un
derStOOC that it was the queen,