水调歌头
苏 轼
明月几时有?把酒问青天。不知天上宫阙,今夕是何年。
我欲乘风归去,又恐琼楼玉宇,高处不胜寒。起舞弄清影,何以在人间!
转朱阁,低绮户,照无眠。不应有恨,何事长向别时圆?
人有悲欢离合,月有阴晴圆缺,此事古难全。但愿人长久,千里共婵娟。
The Moon or Mid-Autumn Festival, on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, observes the biggest and brightest full moon of the year, the harvest moon.
One legend about the Moon Festival concerns expert architect Hou Yih, who built a palace of jade for the Goddess of the western heaven. In reward, she gave Hou Yih a pill with the elixir of immortality, warning him not to take it until he had fulfilled certain conditions. Hou Yih's ever-curious wife, Chang O, found the pill and promptly swallowed it. As punishment, she was banished to the moon where, according to tradition, her beauty is at its most radiant on the day of the Moon Festival.
The Festival is a public holiday marked by family reunions, moon gazing, and the eating of moon cakes-round pastries stuffed with red bean paste and an egg yolk, or fruit and preserves.