The Poems
靜夜思
Jìng Yè Sī
[quiet] [night] [think]
Quiet Night Thoughts

唐朝 (Tang dynasty)李白 (Li Bai)

床前明月光
Chuáng qián míng yuè guāng
[bed] [front] [bright] [moon] [light]
Bright moonlight before my bed; 疑是地上霜
Yí shì dìshàng shuāng
[suspect] [is] [ground] [on] [frost]
I suppose it is frost on the ground.

舉頭望明月
Jǔ tóu wàng míng yuè
[raise] [head] [look] [bright] [moon]
I raise my head to view the bright moon,

低頭思故鄉
Dītóu sī gùxiāng
[lower] [head] [think of] [old] [home village] then lower it, thinking of my home village.

Brief explanation

This is one of the famous poems from Tang dynasty. A poem related to Mid-autumn festival. This is a very famous one, written also by a very famous poet, Li Bai, who can even write excellent poems whilst he is drunk. This poem was also the first Chinese literature I learned. It is a story about how Li Bai misses his hometown while he was travelling all over the countryfar from his hometown.

Deciphering with my words

As you can see in above story, he saw a moonlight passing through and turn the ground in front of his bed to look like it was frozen.
The impression that I got here is he feels lonely and sad. He filled the first 2 lines with sad vibes. Talking about moon and how its light make the ground seems frozen. Frozen has long be related with cold and sad feeling, like you lost something, I knew this from my experience as I once wrote my own poem.
Later, he looks to the night sky to gaze over the moon.
Here the impression I got is, that he starts to ponder about what makes him so sad, feels uncertain and lost. As he staring to the moon, all this emotion was brimming in his heart and so he lower his head, avoid the moonlight. He knows what makes him feel like this. It was how much he missed his hometown.
Relation between the poem and its festival
A full and bright moon symbolizes completion, so the Mid-Autumn Festival is a day for family or dear ones to be together. Traditionally on this day, families gather together to admire the bright moon and, after dinner, eat moon cakes with oolong or jasmine tea.
There is an important Chinese word, yuán mǎn (圓滿), which means consummation, completion, or fulfillment. It is made up of the first character in yuán yuè (圓月), or round moon, and the first character inmǎn yuè (滿月), full moon.
It is believed that the moment of completion should be enjoyed together by all family members—no part missing from the [full] moon and no one missing from the gathering. So, the poem above clearly described the feeling of longing, far away from his hometown, the essence of Mid-Autumn festival meaning.
Another legend about Mid-Autumn festival, is about the Moon Goddess, Chang E and her husband Hou Yi the great archer.
Long, long ago, 10 suns rose in the sky and they scorched all the crops, leaving people in extreme poverty. A hero named Hou Yi shot down nine of the suns, saving the Earth from the destructive heat. Heavenly Empress Wangmu rewarded him with a vial of elixir that would make a person immortal and allow life in the Heavens.
Hou Yi’s wife, Chang E, was known for her beauty and kind heart. Out of his deep love for her, Hou Yi gave the elixir to Chang E for safe-keeping until they could share it when he returned from hunting. However an evil man, Peng Meng, spied this through the window. Three days later, when Hou Yi left to hunt, Peng broke in with sword in hand, planning to force Chang E into giving him the elixir. Chang E quickly put the vial to her mouth and swallowed all its contents. As soon as she had swallowed the elixir, she floated off the ground. She dashed out of the window and flew toward the moon. When Hou Yi returned home that night, he learned from the maidservants what had happened. Tearfully, he looked up into the night sky and called out the name of his beloved wife.
At that moment, the moon became especially clear and bright. Hou Yi saw a shadow of his wife who was looking down at him, also in grief. Hou Yi set up an altar with incense in the garden. On the altar, he put the sweet cakes and fresh fruits that Chang E enjoyed most. Then, he held a memorial ceremony for his wife in the moon. It was the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar year.
Those i conclude the poem meaning and its relation to the festival it represents. Personally , I like this poem because it is simple yet strong and meaningful.