Moon Festival 7 Suns story

“There were once 7 suns, and they were a god’s sons. There are 7 days in a week because one sun is supposed to come out a day, but one day, the suns were bad and all came out at once and there was a drought in the land. The god then commissioned an archer to punish them by shooting all 7 of them, the archer made a mistake and only shot 6. The god was really mad so he demoted the archer and his wife to be mortals. Of course, the archer wanted to be immortal again, so he was looking around and he found a pill to make him immortal. He shared it with his wife, but he didn’t tell her what it was. She then took 2 doses and went to the moon, cause it turns out, 1 dose makes you immortal, but 2 doses make you go to the moon or the Heavens. The wife now lives on the moon in a palace with a bunny. This is supposed to be the meaning behind the moon festival.”

This story can be interpreted as a moral on punishment, failure and covering up knowledge. First the suns, easily related to sons, are harshly punished for disobedience to death. This may relate to the rigorous discipline in many Asian families, especially the respectful relationship between son and father. Then when the archer failed to fulfill his task, he was instantly demoted; Asian families also disparage failure. Lastly, the archer did not tell his wife about the dosage, and for that he was punished by his wife leaving him. Perhaps when the archer was demoted, he was supposed to accept his fate and punishment and leave that for his superiors to decide what would happen to him, which is similar to how it is in traditional Asian families; the parents have more say than the kids.