Chang'e

Chang'e or Chang'O (Chinese: 嫦娥), originally known as Heng'e, is the Chinese goddes of the moon.

She appears several times in Chinese mythology, but the most well-known tale about Chang'e is the one regarding the origin of the Mid-autumn Moon Festival, held on the night of the full moon between early September to early October of the Gregorian Calendar. Most versions contain the following elements: Hou Yi, an archer and Chang'e's husband, an evil or benevolent emperor and the moon.

There are many variations of how she became the goddess of the moon, but they are really well explained here.

A summary:
The earliest known written version of the legend of Houyi and Chang'e (in the "Rites of Zhou" - c. 150BC) starts with them both as immortals. Chang'e is a beautiful young handmaiden working for the Queen Mother of the West. Houyi wins the young maid's heart and they marry. But Houyi is rather less popular with the other immortal courtiers/deities who become jealous of him. They accuse him of wrongdoing before the Jade Emperor, who accepts the charges and banishes the couple from heaven to Earth: thus making them mortal. In order to survive, Houyi becomes a skilled and famous archer.

But in some other versions it is Chang'e who is banished to Earth, for breaking a precious vase belonging to her mistress. There she meets Houyi who is human, but already a skilled archer. And in yet other versions Houyi is still an immortal at the start of the story.

Anyways, Hou Yi saves the Earth from being burnt by ten suns and somehow Chang'e, already married to Hou Yi, manages to obtain his husband's immortal elixir and drink it, what causes her to float to the moon. Houyi uses his powers to ride the winds to pursue her, but the wind is too strong and turbulent. In most versions he is driven back to Earth, but in one he is carried by the Winds back to a palace, where an Emperor tells him that it was destined for him and Chang'e to be separated like this and rewards him with a palace on the Sun for all his good deeds when he was in the Earth.

They give him a red sarsaparilla cake to eat, which will protect him from the sun's heat - and also a lunar talisman so that he may visit the moon to see Chang'e. Carried on a ray of sunlight he flies to the moon. Chang'e is initially nervous, because she thinks he will be angry that she drank both their portions of the drug of immortality, but her husband reassures her that this is all part of a great plan (the origin of yin and yang). Then from that day – the fifteenth day of every lunar month – Houyi visits his wife – bringing the power of yang energy to the moon and causing it to respond with equally great yin energy: the full moon.

Journal of the contest: Myths and legends Contest

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Oh! I forgot to credit the pattern I used for the dress: Pattern 042

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