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Kate Zhu Herald correspondent

I have been working in Harare since April 2021. Before I came to this beautiful country, I used to live in Beijing where my parents are preparing for the Mid-Autumn Festival right now.

Since I have been away from home for 16 months, I would like to share something interesting about Mid-Autumn Festival with my Zimbabwean friends to relieve my homesickness.

Chinese ancestors believed that the seventh, eighth, and ninth lunar months belong to autumn. So the Mid-Autumn Day falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. On this day, the Chinese believe that the moon is at its brightest and fullest size, coinciding with harvest time in the middle of autumn, and then gradually the day has turned into one of the most important traditional festivals in China.

There are many things the Chinese can do to celebrate it, such as eating moon cakes, drinking osmanthus wine, and guessing lantern riddles. The elders are addicted to telling legends about the moon to the kids on this day, and the story about Chang’e, the Moon Goodness in Chinese mythology, is their favorite.

In the ancient past, there was a hero named Hou Yi who was excellent at archery. His wife was Chang’e. One year, the ten suns rose in the sky together, causing great disaster to the people. Yi shot down nine of the suns and left only one to provide light. An immortal admired Yi and sent him the elixir of immortality to thank him for what he did.

Yi did not want to leave Chang’e and be immortal without her, so he let Chang’e keep the elixir. However, Peng Meng, one of his apprentices, knew this secret. So, on the fifteenth of August in the Chinese lunar calendar, when Yi went hunting, Peng Meng broke into Yi’s house and forced Chang’e to give the elixir to him. Chang’e refused to do so. Instead, she swallowed it and flew into the sky. Since she loved her husband and hoped to live nearby, she chose the moon for her residence.

When Yi came back and learned what had happened, he felt so sad that he displayed the fruits and cakes Chang’e liked in the yard and gave sacrifices to his wife. People soon learned about these activities, and since they also were sympathetic to Chang’e they participated in these sacrifices with Yi.

This legend is well known in China. Not only is Chang’e so kind, but gorgeous as well. Thus there are many verses to admire her in Chinese poetry. Even the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP) is also known as Chang’e project and the first Chinese lunar orbiter launched on 24 October 2007 is called Chang’e 1.

Through the joint efforts of Chinese aerospace scientists and engineers, Chang’e 2, Chang’e 3 and Chang’e 4 launched successively in 2010, 2013 and 2018. In 2020, Chang’e 5 landed on moon successfully, and this time it collected 1,731g of lunar samples back to earth. This was an exciting moment in history as China completed the first lunar sample-return mission, which made China the third country to return samples from the moon after the United States and the Soviet Union. The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) is preparing to launch Chang’e 6 in 2024 to perform China’s second lunar sample- return mission.

By the way, the China’s self-developed lunar rover is called Yutu, Jade Rabbit. The Yutu 1 and 2 went together with the Chang’e 3 and 4 to the moon, just like in the legend Chang’e embracing Jade Rabbit flew into the moon. Yutu has been an only companion for Chang’e who is missing her husband so much. That sounds pretty romantic, does it?

Wish everyone in Zimbabwe to have a happy Mid-Autumn Festival.