I caught up with Cecilia last night, and she gave me a potted history of the Moon Festival, though she was at pains to point out she's no history expert.

Many moons ago, at the beginning of recorded Chinese history (so maybe two or three thousand years?), there were nine suns in the sky. Antarctic conditions they were not. No plants grew, water evaporated quicker than money after payday, and thus no-one was too happy (or cool).

A rather strong-armed sort (whose name Cecilia didn't know I'm afraid), took it upon himself to sort things out and promptly shot down eight of these suns with his bow and arrow.

Everyone cheered, he ached, and he was thereafter made King. However, in contrast to his superlative Robin Hood skills, he was a terrible King and his wife (whose name is pronounced roughly 'Chann Err') found her man a huge dissapointment as monarch. So (and here's where the poetic license comes in...), to escape his mediocrity she flew up to the moon, where she has since been seen by the Chinese as a kind of moon goddess.

Now it gets really surreal!

To add to our confusion, there is also apparently a rabbit on the moon (a Chinese rabbit, I presume), though whether the rabbit was already up there or snuck into the lady's travel bag, I've yet to ascertain.

Furthermore, there is a Chinese god who finds love for people (a matchmaking, Cupid-style type God), who ALSO apparently lives in the moon. When he arrived I also don't know. Maybe they got some kind of ancient package deal, I don't know. It strikes me that the rabbit may well be some kind of latter-day commercial add-on, much like Christmas Trees or Easter Eggs.

Datewise, the Moon Festival falls on August 15 of the Lunar Calendar (which this year is today, September 11 in our Western Calendar). It is also referred to as the Mid-Autumn festival (again, Lunar-wise), when the harvests are or have been collected.

Did that all make any sense? Hey, I told it like I heard it.