A long, long time ago, in an ancient Chinese village, there lived a beautiful and kind - hearted woman named Chang'e. Chang'e's husband was Hou Yi, who was an extremely brave and excellent archer.
One day, Hou Yi shot down nine suns and saved all the living things. In order to reward Hou Yi, the Emperor of Heaven bestowed upon him an elixir of immortality. Hou Yi gave this precious medicine to Chang'e for safekeeping because he trusted his wife very much.
One of Hou Yi's apprentices, named Feng Meng, was a greedy person. After he knew that Hou Yi had the elixir of immortality, he wanted to take it for himself. One day, when Hou Yi was not at home, Feng Meng forced Chang'e to hand over the elixir of immortality. Chang'e knew that she couldn't let Feng Meng succeed. If he took this medicine, it would surely bring disaster.
At this critical moment, Chang'e had no other choice. Suddenly, an idea occurred to her. She swallowed the elixir of immortality in one gulp.
After Chang'e swallowed the elixir of immortality, her body became very light and involuntarily flew towards the sky. She flew higher and higher, flying over the village, mountains and rivers. Looking at everything on the ground, she felt a great deal of reluctance in her heart, but she could no longer turn back.
Finally, Chang'e flew to the moon. It was very desolate on the moon, with only a laurel tree and a jade rabbit accompanying her. Since then, Chang'e has lived on the moon, looking at the mortal world every day and missing her husband Hou Yi.
Back on earth, Hou Yi was extremely sad when he returned and found that Chang'e was gone. He called out Chang'e's name towards the moon, and the villagers also missed Chang'e very much. In order to commemorate Chang'e, people would place mooncakes and fruits on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month every year and worship towards the moon. This is the origin of the Mid - Autumn Festival. On this day, people pray for reunion and happiness.
