Moon Festival in Taiwan

It's Moon Festival  here in East Asia (otherwise known ad the Mid-Autunm Festival).

The full moon on the night of Moon Festival

As a part of my training I was taught the story that goes along with Moon Festival (yes, seriously!). According to legend:

There once was a tyrannical King named Hou Yi. He was a master with his bow and slaughtered many terrifying beasts. Once there were ten suns circling the earth, but they were much too hot for the earth so he shot 9 of them down. He was married to Chang Er, a beautiful and gracious woman. One day Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess and planned to rule forever. But he was an unfair king and his people suffered. Chang Er stole the elixir from him and drank it herself to save her people. Hou Yi was very angry with his wife and so she flew to the Moon to escape him. However, he loved her so much that he did not shoot down the moon.

So now every year on the day of the full moon of the 8th Lunar month the Taiwanese people barbeque on the sidewalks, decorate pomelos (They taste like grapefruit and look a bit like pears) and gorge themselves with massive amounts of mooncakes.

The decorated pomelo that my housemate left for me. His name is Dr. Pomelo. I made a match for him who was named Madam Pomelo.

Mooncakes are delicious and they go great with coffee. They come in endless flavors. The more traditional ones are shaped like lotus flowers but the newer styles look like plain miniature cakes. My favorite thus far has been the blueberry filling but they come in infinite varieties including pinapple, prune, coffee, chocolate, nuts, cream cheese, chicken floss, ice cream, green tea, mango, pomelo, sweet bean, lotus, even curry! Basically, if it can be made into a paste or filling, it can be found in a mooncake somewhere (although I have yet to encounter cherry or raspberry as those are fruits found only on a rare occasion on this side of the world).

They also get 4 government required days off for this festival. This year Ella and I took a trip to the Alishan Mountains in the center of the island to get out of the city. But the night before we left I found a puppet show held just outside of the temple a block away from my house in Neili. It was all in Chinese but I'm fairly sure it was about the legend that I just told above and it was interesting in any language.

The puppet truck on the street outside the temple

Before the show started

I believe this to be Chang Er

I believe the one second from the left is Hou Yi

I love the temples here, each one is unique

This is just outside the temple

The moon festival is a popular time for praying and for burning incense in the temples