The Mid-Autumn Festival, also called Moon Cake Festival, is one of the traditional festivals in China, which is dated on August 15 of the Chinese lunar calendar. Ancient Chinese believed it was the best night on the moon and also a day for family reunion. There is a custom for the whole family to eat moon cakes and enjoy the moon in the evening.
 
     Since ancient times, the Mid-Autumn Festival has been a custom of moon sacrifice, moon appreciation, eating moon cakes, playing lanterns, appreciating osmanthus flower, drinking osmanthus wine. The Mid-Autumn Festival implied the family reunion, missing of the hometown and relatives, also wish of the harvest and happiness.
 
     The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival is related to the story of Ms. Chang'e flying to the moon in legend, which is one of the top ten love stories in ancient China. Ms. Chang'e used to be a godess in the heaven, she accompanied her husband, Mr. Hou Yi, an hero and god too, down to the earth as a common people.  Mr. Hou Yi was punished to stay on the earth for being regarded as guilty for shooting down the nine suns by arrows in order to help the people on the earth. The ten suns were actually sons of the emperor in the heaven, but they violated the regulation of appearing in rotation and appeared on the sky together just for their personal pleasure, which almost burned the earth to die.

     Chang'e was not happy with the life on the earth gradually and wanted to back the heaven again. Hou Yi wanted to realize his wife's wish and begged the medicine from the goddess of West Queen Mather. One day Chang'e ate the medicine in private and flew up to the moon Palace in stead of the happy heaven when her husband was out of home. The moon palace was lonely and cold, no other people, what accompanied her was only a white jade rabbit and an osmanthusso tree. Chang'e regret her flying extremely in tears, and also very missed her husband. Moved by her love to her husband, the West Queen Mother agreed her to come down the earth to meet with her husband once on the night of every August 15. Then Chang'e sent dream to Hou Yi and said: " Tomorrow is August 15th, when the moon is full. You make ball of flour, shape like a full moon. You put them in the northwest corner of the house tomorrow evening, and then continuously call my name, then I can come home." The next day, Hou Yi did it according to his wife's dream, and then Chang' e really flied down from the moon and reunited with her husband. From then on, the people on the earth started to make moon cake to celebrate the Mid August Festival. 

    In addition, it is said that the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival is related to agricultural production. On the 8th lunar month, when crops are usually ripe, farmers choose August 15^th to celebrate the harvest.
 
    Anyway, the Mid-Autumn Festival has been inherited for thousands of years, injecting many factors into the traditional Chinese culture, and finally forming the spirit of family reunion.