Last week on the Western calendar (of the Northern Hemisphere), was the first day of fall. (I was reminded via Facebook post, that our friends Down Under, or under and over, in New Zealand, are looking forward to the first days of warmer weather on their calendar where the weather is the reverse of ours.)
Our first day of Autumn coincided almost exactly with the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, which follows yet another calendar, an ancient lunar one.
Mid-Autumn Festival Zhong Qiu Jie or Moon Festival as it is sometimes known, is my favorite of all the Chinese holidays. It's a celebration of family, and a time to enjoy the fleeting moments of beautiful autumnal weather.
It is, like many Chinese family gatherings, a food based holiday. Families share a meal together and little round moon cakes make an appearance. (They have become the Chinese equivalent of fruitcake in the US... nobody really makes them any more at home, and as they've become massed produced they've lost much of their flavor.) In fact, businesses often buy mooncakes by the opulent boxful and present them to clients as a Mid-Autumn Festival gift.
Moon cakes are round "cakes" traditionally shaped in a hand carved wooden mold, so that the tops and edges have fanciful shapes... Chinese symbols and floral themes are the most popular. Most have a savory filling (preserved egg or lotus paste anyone?), though some are sweet, with red bean filling or sweet black sesame. Starbucks has even gotten in on the act offering a waxy variety with flavors from mocha to hazelnut to blueberry.
Moon cakes, like so many things in China have a double significance:
They are round, and thus their shape mimics the full moon around which Moon Festival, or mid-Autumn festival, usually falls.
They also have a historical significance as legend says that secret messages where hidden inside of moon cakes by the Ming revolutionaries in their successful attempt at overthrowing the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty.
“The moon at the home village is exceptionally brighter,” reads a Chinese poem regarding the difficulty of being away from loved ones during special times. Certainly, over the course of our time in Zhong guo we have thought about the “bright moon at home,” as we reminisced sitting on the front porch of The Bungalow, watching the lightning bugs in June or the Lisbon Labor Day Parade in September. But as a Chinese friend who joined us for dinner one night shared, even when people are away from home, they look up and still see the same moon.
This is quite possibly our last Moon Festival in China. And while we've always marked in some way (the girls usually have a the day off of school, and plenty of info gleaned from their Chinese Culture classes to share with us), this year we decided to make it extra special. We bundled up and formed our lawn chairs into a half circle and gazed at the Autumnal Harvest moon. We dined on slivers of moon cakes. The favorite being the fruit filled one from Hisense, followed by the Starbucks entry. (The savory one given to E by a generous classmate was ceremonially tossed over the garden wall.)
My friend in Illinois has promised that if we end up there next year, she will show up with moon pies and a bottle of wine and we can "howl at the moon" together.
The Moon Shines Bright, The Stars Give Light,
God Bless You All, Both Great and Small
From Bedtime Prayers by Alan & Linda Parry
With much love from this side of the moon,
1 comment:
And as we looked at the Harvest Moon here in KC, we saw a very bright Jupiter below the beautiful moon. Shouldn't say "we", Greg being in Germany and no time to look, then in IL and clouds ... Hope you could spot Jupiter there in your part of the dark skies.
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