Mid autumn festival
Where : Many places of East Asia such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, thailand and Malaysia
The mid autumn festival is a celebration to the moon god for the harvest.
In addition to families gathering for a feast, mooncakes are the traditionnal chinese pastry to eat and offer for the festival .
It’s round shape is the symbol of reunion, and its traditional to share pieces of mooncake among several family members.
Legend :
they are several legends about the mid autumn festival, our favorite one is about a time where there was 10 suns, the extreme it made it very difficult for people to live and harvest.
Hou yi a famous archer used his bow to shoot down 9 of them.
he earned an elixir from the queen of heaven, which will make him a god and ascend to heaven.
Hou did not want to leave his wife, so he kept the elixir preciously.
one day when he was gone, a villain broke into the couple house to find the elixir, as unfortunately the word was spread.
in a desperate attempt Chang’e, Hou’s wife drunk the elixir to not hand it to the villain.
she flew to the sky in direction to heaven and stopped on the moon to stay close to her husband.
Every full moon his husband dressed a nice table under the moon in the hope for his wife to come down.
Another legend features 3 animals challenged by the Emperor of heaven, a fox a monkey and a rabbit.
The emperor of heaven sent a beggar to ask them for food. the fox found a fish in the water, the monkey found fruits in trees. The rabbit did not find anything, as he felt guilty he offered himself as food for the beggar.
This gesture of altruism was rewarded by the Emperor of heaven who sent the rabbit on the moon.
Now the rabbit is a loyal companion to chang’e on the moon.
Impact on business:
A public holidays is granted either the 15th or 16th day of the 8th month of the lunar year depending on countries.
Also when the public holiday is on the 16th many business offer to their employees 1/4 day on the 15th day so they can prepare the family gathering.