Dear Students,“
As you look at the picture on the left, what is impressive to you? What is the lady holding in her hands? This is one of the symbols of Chinese Mid-Autum Festival. In Chinese we call it "中秋节. zhōng qiū jié ". It is on the 15th day of August in the lunar calendar. If you think of how July, August, and September are the months of autumn, it is exactly in the middle of autumn. That's why Chinese people call it "Mid-Autumn Festival". On this day, it is the day of the full moon. This year the festival in on September 30.
There is more than one legend about this festival. The most traditional one is the story of a queen named “嫦 娥 cháng é ”. Her husband was a good king in the beginning and then became a bad king later. Both the king and queen had a life elixir for living forever. She did not want the king to be bad and live forever. So she decided to end the tragedy and drink the life elixir. Since she drank two doses of the elixir, that caused her to fly away from the world. She saw the beautiful full moon and flew there. She finally stays on the moon. In 1969, when Mr. Armstrong was the first person to step on the moon, the Chinese people realized that it destroyed the beautiful story. Even though, Chinese people still celebrate the festival since it has been in Chinese history for over two thousand years.
On this day, Chinese people celebrate it by eating moon cakes and family members get together to enjoy the beautiful full moon and the family intimacy. Chinese people also eat a special fruit called "柚 子yòu zǐ ", it is called "Pomelo" in US. It is the popular fruit for celebrating "“中秋节. zhōng qiū jié ” because it is harvested around the time of the festival.
Please copy and paste the following website to watch a video.
http://english.t-d.tv/ePlay/2011-12-1/a284e5d572204db9a60d83ebb36a2df1
5-8th grade students, please also watch the attached video. Please compare the Chinese and English narratives. It is ok you don't understand the Chinese but you can train yourself to get used to the real speed of speaking. The background music is played by a traditional Chinese instrument which is called "古筝 gǔ zhēng ”.
As you look at the picture on the left, what is impressive to you? What is the lady holding in her hands? This is one of the symbols of Chinese Mid-Autum Festival. In Chinese we call it "中秋节. zhōng qiū jié ". It is on the 15th day of August in the lunar calendar. If you think of how July, August, and September are the months of autumn, it is exactly in the middle of autumn. That's why Chinese people call it "Mid-Autumn Festival". On this day, it is the day of the full moon. This year the festival in on September 30.
There is more than one legend about this festival. The most traditional one is the story of a queen named “嫦 娥 cháng é ”. Her husband was a good king in the beginning and then became a bad king later. Both the king and queen had a life elixir for living forever. She did not want the king to be bad and live forever. So she decided to end the tragedy and drink the life elixir. Since she drank two doses of the elixir, that caused her to fly away from the world. She saw the beautiful full moon and flew there. She finally stays on the moon. In 1969, when Mr. Armstrong was the first person to step on the moon, the Chinese people realized that it destroyed the beautiful story. Even though, Chinese people still celebrate the festival since it has been in Chinese history for over two thousand years.
On this day, Chinese people celebrate it by eating moon cakes and family members get together to enjoy the beautiful full moon and the family intimacy. Chinese people also eat a special fruit called "柚 子yòu zǐ ", it is called "Pomelo" in US. It is the popular fruit for celebrating "“中秋节. zhōng qiū jié ” because it is harvested around the time of the festival.
Please copy and paste the following website to watch a video.
http://english.t-d.tv/ePlay/2011-12-1/a284e5d572204db9a60d83ebb36a2df1
5-8th grade students, please also watch the attached video. Please compare the Chinese and English narratives. It is ok you don't understand the Chinese but you can train yourself to get used to the real speed of speaking. The background music is played by a traditional Chinese instrument which is called "古筝 gǔ zhēng ”.