Every autumn, my mom would bring home moon cakes for us to eat. She would take one out of the box and cut it up into quarters. When I got my quarter portion of the yummy red-bean, double-egg-yolk, bit-of-heaven sweet moon cake, I always wondered who the lady was on the box and why we ate them only in the months of September or October. I never knew then how eating more than a quarter piece of moon cake in one sitting could cause a terrible stomach ache, nor did I know that a story about the lady on the moon cake box actually existed.

Now I know:

A long time ago, the sky had ten Suns warming the sky. During one summer, the ten Suns shone so brightly that it caused all the plants and rivers to dry up. Life became unbearable for the Emperor and his subjects.

The Emperor called on the great archer Hou Yi. Hou Yi was a well-known archer who could shoot and hit targets far and near with perfect precision. The Emperor commanded Hou Yi to shoot down all but one of the ten Suns from the sky. Taking nine magic arrows to his bow, the archer pulled back with all his might and shot down nine of the ten Suns. The summer returned to normal and the Emperor’s people were safe once again.

The Emperor rewarded Hou Yi with a great wealth of money and jewels. Hou Yi took this money to marry the woman he so greatly loved and long for, the beautiful Chang Oh. The wedding was fabulous and the families of Hou Yi and Chang Oh were happy.

Later on, the Emperor called on Hou Yi again to perform another great feat. He wanted Hou Yi to build a new royal palace. Hou Yi was not only a superb archer. He was also the Emperor’s royal architect. The most lavish, grandest palace was built, decorated with gold and jewels and filled with precious silks and exquisite handicrafts.

The Emperor was impressed with Hou Yi’s accomplishments. This time, the Emperor chose not to reward Hou Yi with jewels or gold. Instead, he chose to give Hou Yi a small bottle containing the elixir of immortality. The Emperor told Hou Yi to be careful not to drink the entire bottle. It was supposed to be shared between Hou Yi and his beautiful wife, Chang Oh.

Hou Yi rushed home to share his reward with Chang Oh. Chang Oh, driven by excitement, drank the entire bottle of immortality elixir. When the elixir reached her stomach, her head spun wildly and then she fell to the ground. Suddenly, weightlessness overcame her and she started to float towards the sky! She grabbed everything she could to keep her from floating: chairs, plants, even her husband. The last thing she held onto was her caged pet white rabbit. Hou Yi desperately screamed for her and watched helplessly as the beautiful Chang Oh floated to the Moon.

Chang Oh had become trapped on the Moon to live eternally without her husband, only to be kept company with her pet white rabbit. It could only be magic that the Moon Bridge appears one night, once a year, during the eighth lunar month towards September or October, and connects the Earth to the Moon. During this one night, Chang Oh and Hou Yi are reunited for a brief moment of happiness.

So every autumn when I eat my quarter portion moon cake and see Chang Oh’s image on moon cake boxes, I am reminded that the Full Moon is the brightest during this time of the year. And it is possible even for a little while for true magic to happen and for lovers to reunite.