In any case, today's post is about a very important holiday to the East-Asian community that just passed recently; can anybody guess what it is? Here is a hint from Google:
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| Google Doodle for Taiwan and Hong Kong Google |
If you said--or thought--Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival then ding ding ding! you'd be correct! And if you said Mid-Autumn Festival, I would be super impressed, because up until college, I was still referring to this day as the Mooncake Festival, hahaha.
Celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month (which happened to fall on September 15th on the Gregorian calendar this year), the Mid-Autumn Festival (known as 中秋節 in Chinese) is a time for families to gather together, to make offerings to ancestors, and of course, to eat some delicious mooncakes together. But what is this holiday exactly? Well, let us start by doing a little time traveling, shall we?
A little history and mythology
(Lesson brought to you by Wikipedia and the Hong Kong Tourism Board)
The roots of the Mid-Autumn Festival is thought to date as early back as the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600- 1046 BCE), as a celebration of the harvest during the autumn full moon. Originally just a simple celebration of a successful harvesting season in which offerings were made to the deities in thanks, the Mid-Autumn Festival only started gaining popularity as an actual festival during the early Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE).
The moon itself is an important symbol, its round shape evoking ancient sentiments of unity and reunion, hence the tradition of gathering together to watch the full moon. In the past, offerings of wine, spherical fruits, and of course, mooncakes, were made to the deities in gratitude for the bountiful harvest. There are also popular stories associated with the moon, most notably, in Chinese culture, that of 嫦娥 (Chang'e), known as the Moon Goddess of Immortality.
One variation of the story states that back in the day, there were ten suns who, because they all rose in the sky at the same time, brought about calamity to the people. Thus the archer 后羿 (Houyi) shot down nine of them, leaving one in order to provide light. This heroic act earned 后羿 the admiration of an immortal who decided to gift him an elixir of immortality, but because he did not want to be immortal without his wife 嫦娥, 后羿 left the elixir with his wife. However, one of his apprentices knew of this and on the fifteenth day of August (in the lunar calendar) when 后羿 was out hunting, the apprentice broke into the house to force 嫦娥 to give him the elixir. Refusing to do so, 嫦娥 instead swallowed the elixir herself and flew into the sky. Due to her love for her husband,
嫦娥 decided to live in the moon so that she could be close to her husband. Upon his return, when he learned of what his wife did, 后羿 was so sad he displayed her favorite fruits and cakes in the yard, offering sacrifices for her. When people learned of her story, they also participated in these sacrifices with 后羿 feeling sympathy towards 嫦娥.
Another variation of the story goes that 嫦娥 actually stole the elixir from 后羿, who had become a tyrannical ruler who wanted the elixir for himself. She then became a deity of the moon and offerings were made to 嫦娥 every year as commemoration of what she had done.
In both of these stories, as you can see, 嫦娥 is honored for her noble sacrifice.
The moon itself is an important symbol, its round shape evoking ancient sentiments of unity and reunion, hence the tradition of gathering together to watch the full moon. In the past, offerings of wine, spherical fruits, and of course, mooncakes, were made to the deities in gratitude for the bountiful harvest. There are also popular stories associated with the moon, most notably, in Chinese culture, that of 嫦娥 (Chang'e), known as the Moon Goddess of Immortality.
One variation of the story states that back in the day, there were ten suns who, because they all rose in the sky at the same time, brought about calamity to the people. Thus the archer 后羿 (Houyi) shot down nine of them, leaving one in order to provide light. This heroic act earned 后羿 the admiration of an immortal who decided to gift him an elixir of immortality, but because he did not want to be immortal without his wife 嫦娥, 后羿 left the elixir with his wife. However, one of his apprentices knew of this and on the fifteenth day of August (in the lunar calendar) when 后羿 was out hunting, the apprentice broke into the house to force 嫦娥 to give him the elixir. Refusing to do so, 嫦娥 instead swallowed the elixir herself and flew into the sky. Due to her love for her husband,
嫦娥 decided to live in the moon so that she could be close to her husband. Upon his return, when he learned of what his wife did, 后羿 was so sad he displayed her favorite fruits and cakes in the yard, offering sacrifices for her. When people learned of her story, they also participated in these sacrifices with 后羿 feeling sympathy towards 嫦娥.
Another variation of the story goes that 嫦娥 actually stole the elixir from 后羿, who had become a tyrannical ruler who wanted the elixir for himself. She then became a deity of the moon and offerings were made to 嫦娥 every year as commemoration of what she had done.
In both of these stories, as you can see, 嫦娥 is honored for her noble sacrifice.
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| A depiction of 嫦娥 flying to the moon |
Mooncake 月餅
We can't talk about the Mid-Autumn Festival and not talk about mooncakes, now can we? Mooncakes are a pastry that was traditionally made with a lotus seed paste filling with an egg yolk in the center meant to represent the moon. Today you can find them in a variety of flavors, such as red bean, nuts, and, one of my personal favorites, pandan. There are also frozen kinds with fruity fillings too such as the famous 美心冰皮 ones from Hong Kong.
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| I bought these when I was abroad in Seoul; the one on the left is 哈密瓜 (melon) while the one on the right is bean paste (豆沙) |
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| Frozen 美心冰皮 mooncakes |
Mooncakes are thought to have their origin during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 CE) when the Han Chinese rebelling against the ruling Mongols used mooncakes as a way to pass along secret messages that they were going to rebel during Mid-Autumn. Today, family members often give mooncakes to each other, eating them together, with the roundness of the mooncake--like the moon--representative of family unity and reunion.
Although I have talked a lot about Chinese customs regarding the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is in fact widely celebrated across East and Southeast Asia in countries such as Vietnam (where it is known as Tết Trung Thu), Korea (known as 추석), Japan (known as 月見), Malaysia, and Singapore. Of course each country has its own customs, but the tradition of gathering together with friends and family is a common practice across the different countries. I suppose it is because of this commonality to Thanksgiving in that it is a day about gathering together with family and giving thanks that 추석 is often referred to as "Korean Thanksgiving."
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| Known as 月見 (tsukimi, literally moon-viewing) in Japan, where festivals were held to honor the autumn moon which, due to its position in the cosmos, is believed to be at its brightest. The Japanese believe that the shadows on the moon resemble rabbits pounding out mochi cakes, hence many Japanese images of the Mid-Autumn festival depict a rabbit in the moon as seen in this Google Doodle. |
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| This Google Doodle from Google Korea depicts games often played during 추석, such as 널뛰기 and 윷놀이. As with 中秋節, 추석 is a time about gathering with family and honoring the ancestors and during this time, tourists will find that many businesses in Korea are closed. |
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| In Vietnam, in addition to being a day to gather with family and moon-watch, Tết Trung Thu has also evolved to become a celebration of children as children, believed to be innocent and pure, held the closest connection to the sacred and natural world. As such, the Mid-Autumn Festival is often known as the Children's Festival in Vietnam |
祝大家中秋節快樂！I hope everyone had a great Mid-Autumn Festival, ate lots of mooncake, appreciated the beauty of the full moon, and spent lots of time with their families!
但願人長久，
千里共嬋娟
~ 蘇軾, 《水調歌頭·丙辰中秋》
"May we live long and share the beauty of the moon together, even if we are hundreds of miles apart."
~ From Su Shi's "Shuǐdiào Gētóu – Bǐngchén Zhōngqiū"
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