Pastel Ark Gallery – Festivals

Festivals are happy places, and you don’t really want to enjoy them on your own.

I hope every festival and occasion in your life is filled with love, and shared with your family and friends.

And I also hope these art works bring warmth to you.

Enjoy!

(This gallery is very new, it will get populated with more artworks over time.)

Mid-Autumn Festival

Legend has it that there used to be 10 suns, causing great hardship due to the heat and drought. The Emperor of Heaven instructed the great archer Hou Yi to shoot down 9 of the suns, which he did, and was rewarded with an immortality elixir, which he intended to share with his wife Chang’e.

However, while Hou Yi was away, Chang’e drank the elixir in an attempt to foil his wicked apprentice’s plan to steal it. As a result, she ascended to the heavens – to the moon specifically, and made it her home.

Falling on the 15th of August in the lunar calendar, the mid-autumn festival is a time when Chinese families gather around mooncakes and some hot tea to enjoy the full moon while the kids play with lanterns.

I was curious as to why the rabbit features so heavily in this festival, and came across this story:

Buddha disguised himself as a hungry man and approached 3 animals for help – a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox caught a fish for him. The monkey shared some fruits. The rabbit threw itself into the fire to offer its meat. Buddha was touched by the rabbit’s sacrifice, resurrected it and sent it to the moon.