Chinese Festivals I - the Moon Festival Quiz | World

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. The Moon Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. It is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival. What is the Chinese name for this festival?

Answer: Zhong Qiu Jie

The festival may have begun as a harvest thanksgiving celebration, coinciding with the harvest season in China. In Chinese culture, the moon is spiritually more important than the sun, and farming is considered closer in rhythm with the moon than the sun. Today, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a day of family reunions much like a Western Thanksgiving. Chinese people believe that on that day, the moon is the roundest and brightest of the year, signalling a time of completeness and abundance.

2. The magical full moon constitutes the very soul of the festival. According to legend, of what was "Old Man on the Moon" (Yue-lao) the god?

Answer: Marriage

The moon has become a deeply ingrained symbol of love predestined by the Old Man, the God of Marriage, who bears the weighty responsibility of deciding all mortal marriages. Yue-lao ties the future husband and wife together with an invisible red silken cord that never breaks as long as life lasts.

At the appropriate time, the cord will bring the predestined couple together and they will marry!

3. A great poet laureate of the Tang Dynasty wrote beautiful poetry extolling the moon. A wine lover, he was reputed to have drowned while trying to embrace the moon's reflection in the water from a boat. Who was the poet?

Answer: Li Bai (Li Bo)

The Tang poet Li Bai left us with over 1,000 poems. Besides these, he is also known by the legend how he died. He supposedly drowned drunk, trying to embrace the moon's reflection in the Yangtze River. His famous poem regarding the moon is as follows:
Before my bed, the moon is shining bright,
I think that it is frost upon the ground.
I raise my head and look at the bright moon,
I lower my head and think of home.

4. The Moon Festival is, of course, celebrated by eating mooncakes. Traditionally what is used as filling for mooncakes?

Answer: Lotus seed paste

The traditional mooncake is shaped like a drum the size of a small saucer, and filled with lotus seed paste. A salted duck's egg yolk, symbolizing the moon, forms its core. When the cake is sliced in the middle the golden yolk resembles the full moon. Nowadays, you can find dozens varieties of moon cake with nuts or ham, with red bean paste, green bean paste, coconut cream paste, dried fruit or even tapioca pearls.

There is even an ice cream mooncake by Haagen Dazs.

5. According to Chinese sources, mooncakes were first mentioned in connection with the Moon Festival only when China came under the rule of these people in the Yuan dynasty. Who were these people?

Answer: Mongols

The Mongols, to counter subversion, billeted their soldiers from Chinese households. This friction led the Chinese to organize a revolt. Secret messages naming the Moon Festival as the Rebellion Day were hidden in mooncakes and passed from neighbour to neighbour under the very noses of the Mongol soldiers, who did not eat these cakes.

The revolt was successful and in 1368 the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty ascended the throne.

6. Much fruit is eaten during the festival. One special fruit is eaten as well as given as gifts as symbols of prosperity. Which native fruit is that?

Answer: Pomelo

The pomelo symbolizes prosperity because the Chinese name for pomelo is "yow", which sounds like "to have" or "to own".

7. On the evening before the Mid-Autumn celebration, families would prepare plates filled with round fruits - grapes, apples, pomegranates, honey peaches, and moon cakes. The round shape of these food symbolize not on the fullness of the moon but also the unity of the family. In some areas, though, a certain fruit is excluded, which fruit is this?

Answer: Pear

Because of its perfectly circular shape, the full moon has become a symbol of family togetherness. Friends and family will gather together, chatting and eating fruit and cakes, drinking tea or sipping wine under the bright moonlight. In some areas pears were excluded from the traditional fruits displayed because the Chinese word for pear - "li" is homonym to the Chinese word for "separation" and therefore considered inappropriate to the occasion.

8. Despite paying homage to the moon, the ancient Chinese beat drums to save the object of their worship during the dreaded lunar eclipse. Why do they beat drums?

Answer: Scare away the celestial monster dog who tried to swallow the moon

During a lunar eclipse, the Chinese believed that a celestial dog had the moon in its jaws and was about to swallow it. Drums were beaten, creating noise to drive away the monster dog. And they succeeded every time: the moon always emerged unscathed after every encounter!

9. Young Chinese maidens pray to Chang-E, the moon goddess, to endow them with beauty. She was the beautiful wife of Hou Yi, a greater archer who turned tyrant. Chang-E stole from him the pill of immortality and swallowed it, and found herself floating to the moon. What animal kept her company on the moon?

Answer: Jade rabbit

Legend was that in the old days ten suns circled the earth. One day all ten appeared together and the earth was scorched by the great heat. The great archer volunteered to shoot down nine of them and was greatly rewarded. However, he became a boorish tyrant.

He sought immortality by ordering an elixir be created to prolong his life. To save the people from his oppressive rule, his wife, Chang-E, stole the pill and swallowed it. While trying to flee Hou Yi's anger, she jumped out a window and instead of falling, found herself floating to the moon.

10. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, children are delighted to stay up past midnight, parading multi-colored lanterns into the wee hours as families take to the streets to moon-gaze. The lanterns varied by size, shape, form, color, material, and complexity. The most complex lantern involves revolving panels that turn when lit. What is this type of lantern called?

Answer: Galloping horse lantern

The most complex lantern seems to have been the "zou-ma deng" or "galloping horse lantern." These lanterns had candles within, and when lit, heated up the air causing a hidden pinwheel to turn. The effect was revolving panels within the lantern; the panels depicted ancient history, fables, and myths.

As the panels turn, shadows of the different characters appear to chase each other in endless circles inside the lantern.

Source: Author nokbbear

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor stedman before going online.
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Chinese Festivals I - the Moon Festival Quiz

This is the first of a series of quizzes on different Chinese Festivals. The Moon Festival is an occasion for family reunions, romance, and legends.

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