Sep 27, 2015
Mid Autumn Festival 2015
This Doodle’s Key Themes
Celebrated on the fifteenth day of China’s eighth lunar month, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a moment of thanks and togetherness whose origins stretch deeply into ancient history. In days long since passed, so the myth goes, ten blazing suns beat mercilessly upon the earth, withering crops and blistering fields beyond salvation. A skillful hunter named Hou Yi rode to the top of Mount Kunlun where, with tremendous strength, he drew an immense bow and shot down the nine superfluous suns, cooling the earth and revivifying the harvest.
In return for his heroism, Hou Yi was bequeathed an elixir that would elevate him to the heavens and render him immortal. Unable to bear the thought of leaving his wife, Cháng'é, and fearing the vial would fall into the wrong hands, he gave her the potion and asked that she deliver it from sight. One day, while Hou Yi was out, a nefarious squire stole into his quarters in search of the elixir. Finding Cháng'é, the man demanded it; knowing a struggle would be futile, Cháng'é dashed away and swallowed the potion, whereupon she drifted into the ether and landed on the moon.
Returning to find his beloved had vanished, Hou Yi was plunged into a deep sadness. But upon lifting his eyes to the sky that night, he beheld a particularly brilliant lunar glow.
And being that the moon, as it is, can be something of a lonely place, Cháng'é is accompanied by rabbits wherever she goes.
Concept sketches by Doodler Sophie Diao
Final by Doodler Lydia Nichols
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