Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the largest harvest festivals in the world, as well as the second most important festival in the Chinese calendar. It is called the Mid-Autumn Festival because it is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, which is the exact middle of autumn.
      Chinese people around the world celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival by reuniting with family and friends, fire dragon dances, lighting paper lanterns, and eating mooncakes. In traditional form, the round mooncakes are filled with lotus seed paste and has a round salted duck egg yolk in the centre, to represent the full moon. Other traditional fillings are red bean paste and taro paste. Mooncakes today might have non-traditional fillings such as dates, nuts, fruit, Chinese sausage, green tea, or glutinous rice flour. The ice cream brand Haagen-Dazs even has ice cream mooncakes.
There are many legends about the Mid-Autumn Festival. A well-known tale is the story of the Lady in the Moon. One day, 10 suns appeared in the sky at once and scorched the earth with their heat. The Emperor commanded a famous archer named Houyi to shoot down all but one of the suns. Houyi's reward was a pill that would make him immortal. While he was away one day, Houyi's wife Chang'e found the pill and swallowed it. The pill caused Chang'e to float out the window and up to the moon.
      The most well-known legend about the Mid-Autumn Festival is about the origin of mooncakes. China was occupied by the Mongol army in the 13th century. In 1368 AD, rebels secretly placed a piece of paper with a message about a planned rebellion on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The mooncakes were distributed to the Chinese people, who then carried out a successful rebellion on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
      This year's Mid-Autumn Festival will be on September 30, 2012. Eat, drink, and be merry! 

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      Vocabulary
      harvest               收成
      lotus seed paste 蓮蓉
      egg yolk              蛋黃
      red bean paste  紅豆沙
      taro paste              竽蓉
      glutinous rice              糯米
      legends                           傳說
      scorched              曬焦
      Houyi                           后羿
      immortal              長生不老
      Chang’e              嫦娥
      Mongol                           蒙古
      Rebellion              反抗