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Moon
Festival
During
this festival we eat moon cakes, which are made with red beans,
pastry, preserved duck egg yolk, and black nuts.
The
story behind it was that long ago the earth had ten suns and they
were the sons of Jade Emperor. The heat from these sons (suns) of
the Emperor had caused droughts and famine.
Chinese religion is based on earth and heaven, and is often
mistaken by outsiders as Buddhism.  |
| Our
Untold Stories |
The
Emperor saw what his sons did and he went to see the god of Hou
Yi and asked him to persuade his sons to leave the earth to end
the catastrophe, but they refused. This had angered Hou Yi so he
decided to shoot them down one by one, but Hou Yi's wife pleaded
him to leave one sun to keep the earth warm and bright.
Because
he had done this without telling the Emperor, he and his wife were
forced to remain on earth. This had upset his wife, and in order
to win her back, he collected all the herbs that would give them
their power back to ascend to heaven again.
Unfortunately
for him, his wife ate it all herself and flew up to the moon and
remained there. The moon cake, represent Hou Yi's wife and the black
bullhorn shaped nuts represent Hou Yi himself.
Religion
Chinese
religion is based on earth and heaven, and is often mistaken by
outsiders as Buddhism.
In
fact most Chinese do not have a particular or strong religion, we
believe that what goes round must come round, and reincarnation,
whether the next life turns out to be an animal or another human
life, depends on the luck of your last one.
Luck
(haoming) and happiness (fuqi) will determine your next life after
you die.
Chinese
religion is based on worshipping the god (baishen), with influence
from Confucian philosophy. Because we believe that there is life
after death, nearly all Chinese families place Tian Gong (shrines)
inside and outside their houses, where we burnt joss sticks morning
and night to pay respect to our ancestors.
On
their birth and death dates, all members of the family come home
for a feast to show respect.
Culture
China
has a history of 5000 years and is the only continuous ancient civilization.
Chinese culture is rich and profound and Chinese may have more historical
records than the whole world put together.
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| China
has a rich and diverse culture |
A major
source of Chinese culture is her pre-industrial revolution science
and technology.
Another
reason for the richness of Chinese culture is that China has always
been a country of many ethnic groups. All these peoples have their
own legacies, but they share the same legacy, that of being Chinese
as well.
In
the West, Confucianism is the best known inspiration from Chinese
culture, and probably this is true for many Chinese people as well.
Other
world influences drawn from China include Taoism, mysticism, and
more recently the late Chairman Mao.
The
richest Buddhist legacy is also Chinese, although Buddhism did not
originate in China.
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