Mid-Autumn Festival · Worksheet 1
One Moon, Many Families
Read the story. 英文を読もう。
1On one night in early autumn, people across East Asia look up at the same bright moon. This is the Mid-Autumn Festival. It comes on the 15th day of the 8th month of the old lunar calendar. So the date moves every year, from September to early October.
2In China, people have celebrated the autumn moon for more than 2,000 years. Long ago, emperors gave gifts to the moon in autumn. Later, families started to eat mooncakes together on this night. A mooncake is round like the full moon. Inside, there is sweet bean paste, and sometimes an egg yolk that looks like a little moon.
3Many people tell the story of Chang'e. She drank a magic medicine and flew all the way to the moon. Now she lives there with a white rabbit. In China, the rabbit makes medicine. But in Japan and Korea, people say the rabbit makes rice cakes.
4Each country has its own way to celebrate. In Korea, the holiday is called Chuseok, and millions of people go back to their hometowns. They visit family graves and make half-moon rice cakes called songpyeon. In Vietnam, it is a festival for children, so kids carry star lanterns and watch lion dances. In Japan, people put out round dango and tall grass for the moon.
5The most important word for this night is together. A round moon and a round cake are signs of a family circle with no one missing. Even when people live far apart, they can still share the same moon. In 1076, a Chinese poet missed his brother on this night. So he wrote a wish for people far apart to enjoy one moon together.
- autumn 秋
- lunar 月の、太陰暦の
- calendar 暦、カレンダー
- celebrate 祝う
- emperor 皇帝
- paste ペースト、あん
- yolk 卵の黄身
- medicine 薬
- hometown 故郷、地元
- grave お墓
- lantern ちょうちん、ランタン
- poet 詩人