An Invitation to the Mid-Autumn Festival in China Dear Jessica,
How are you doing? I hope you and your family are all well. I'm writing to invite you to come visit me in China for the Mid-Autumn Festival! It's one of the biggest celebrations of the year and a really fun time.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Moon Festival. It happens every year on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. This year it falls on September 29th. The holiday celebrates the autumn moon, which is the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. There are a lot of cool traditions and activities!
One of the main traditions is eating mooncakes. Mooncakes are these really tasty pastries that are shaped like the full moon. They have a thin crust and a sweet filling inside, often with lotus seed paste or red bean paste. Some fancier mooncakes even have egg yolks inside that look like the moon! My favorite part is the salted egg yolk filling. Eating mooncakes is a way to
celebrate the harvest and enjoy the beauty of the bright autumn moon.
Another big tradition is watching the moon rise. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, families get together and go outside to look at the full moon. We play games, eat mooncakes and fruits, and just enjoy being with family under the moonlight. My grandparents always tell stories about the legends related to the Moon Festival when we watch the moon rise. There are a lot of myths and fairy tales that Chinese people have passed down for centuries about the moon!
One of the most famous legends is the story of Chang'e, the mythological Moon Goddess. The story goes that a long time ago, there were 10 suns in the sky that took turns coming out each day. But one day, all 10 suns came out at once and the extreme heat started to burn up the Earth! A skilled archer named Hou Yi had to shoot down 9 of the suns to save the planet. For doing this heroic deed, the gods rewarded Hou Yi with a magic potion that could make him immortal. Hou Yi didn't drink it right away because he loved his beautiful wife Chang'e so much that he didn't want to become immortal without her. Well, one of Hou Yi's apprentices found out about the magic potion and tried to force Chang'e to give it to him so he could live forever! To keep the potion from the greedy apprentice, Chang'e drank it herself. But drinking the whole thing at once
made her body become lighter than air, and she started floating up into the sky! Chang'e kept rising higher and higher until she landed on the moon, where she has lived as the goddess of the moon palace ever since. Some versions of the legend say there is also a jade rabbit on the moon who is Chang'e's pet and companion. Isn't that a cool story?
There are a lot of fun activities and games played during the Mid-Autumn Festival too. One popular game is \"catching the pedestrians.\" It's kind of like tag, where one person is the \"celestial dog\" and tries to catch the other players who are \"pedestrians\" walking on the \"Milky Way.\" Another fun game is making lanterns and having lantern riddle-guessing
competitions, where you have to solve riddles to win candy or prizes.
Speaking of lanterns, the Festival is also known for the beautiful lantern displays and lantern parades. Huge, elaborate lanterns in the shapes of animals, flowers, buildings, and more are made for the celebrations. Some shoot off fireworks or have moving parts! At night, the lanterns are lit up and people carry them in big parades through the streets. It looks so magical with all the glowing lanterns swinging through the crowds. Many
families also make their own small lanterns at home to carry during the parade or decorate with.
One of my favorite parts is eating all the delicious harvest foods! In addition to mooncakes, we have fresh fruits like pomelos, grapes, persimmons and hairy crabs, which are a seasonal delicacy. There are also lots of tasty snacks and dishes made from crops harvested in the autumn. My grandma always makes her special lotus root and pork soup that is just the best! Overall, the Mid-Autumn Festival is such a joyful and vibrant celebration of being with family, appreciating the bounties of the fall harvest, and admiring the beauty of the full moon. I would love for you to experience all the fun traditions with my family here in Beijing! We could eat mooncakes and moon-themed foods, make lanterns, play festival games, watch the lantern parades, and of course gaze at the big, bright moon together at night.
Please let me know if you can come! My parents said you and your family are more than welcome to stay with us. The Mid-Autumn Festival only comes once a year and it would mean so much to have my best friend celebrating it with me. I'm counting down the days until September 29th! Your friend,
[Your Name]
因篇幅问题不能全部显示，请点此查看更多更全内容