Harvest Moon Festival

The U.S. team arrived in Hangzhou to see massive amounts of people on the streets. Yes, more than usual in China which meant a MASSIVE amount of people. The team later found out that today is actually a holiday, and most people took off work early. It’s the Harvest Moon Festival in China (also called the Mooncake or Mid-Autumn harvest) and apparently it’s the biggest holiday in China outside of the New Year. It’s the day when the moon is the biggest and brightest in the sky. It happens every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace who comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface. The legend surrounding the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. There’s much more to the story, but it was kind of long for the Blog, so if you are interested, you can Google it like we did.