The Mooncake Festival legend, by the best restaurant in Zetland

During the mooncake festival later on in the year, almost any Chinese restaurant that you visit has a high chance of selling mooncakes. The mooncake festival is one of the most widely celebrated and anticipated festivals in China, so let the best restaurant in Zetland tell you all about the mooncake festival legend.

The legend goes a little like this, they say that long ago there were 10 suns in the sky. The unbearable heat from them burnt the crops, dried up the waters and people were dying. One day, a hero named Hou Yi used his bow and arrows to shoot down nine suns, leaving one for warmth and light. He saved everyone on Earth and the queen of the heavens decided to give him a potion that could make one person immortal. He didn’t drink it though so that he could stay with his wife Chang’e the goddess of the moon.

This act made him famous and many people tried following in Hou Yi’s footsteps trying to learn his archery skills, but not all of his students had a good morality. A student by the name of Feng Meng was planning on stealing the potion. So one day he pretended to be ill and didn’t go hunting, instead Feng Meng went to his house and was demanding the potion from Chang’e. She knew that she couldn’t defeat him. So she drank the potion before he could snatch it away, this made her immortal and she flew higher and higher until she reached the moon.

After Hou Yi found out about what had happened, he was grieving everyday but on one specific night, he saw a shadow on the moon that looked like his wife and took her some food. From this day onwards, people pray to Chang’e for fortune and safety.

This year on the 8th October, the Mooncake Festival will take place.

We hope that this small slice of our legends has intrigued you to learn more, we look forward to seeing you at our Zetland restaurant.

Don’t forget that we are open 7 days a week for yum cha at lunch and then open for al a carte at dinner, so make a booking today at the best restaurant in Zetland.