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Friday, September 20, 2002
LEE: On Moon Festival
One needs only to step out on the night of the Moon Festival, and watch in awe at the fullness of the Moon, its moonbeams streaking the dark sky, seemingly transforming night into day.
SEPTEMBER 21 is a special date for Chinese everywhere this year. It is the day of the Moon Festival which holds great meaning especially for Overseas Chinese who are far away from their homeland, with family and relatives scattered all over the world.
For more than 2,000 years, the Chinese have connected the ups and downs of their lives to the changes of the moon, interpreting joy and sorrow, separation and reunion from the different phases of the moon. During the moon festival, the moon will be full and round, symbolizing togetherness and reunion to all who gazed at it.
Chinese use this date as a chance to get together with their family, to celebrate the festival and at the same time enjoy each other's company. However, for those who cannot return home to join in the celebration, the Moon Festival has also become well known as a time for them to watch the bright moon as it shines down and to reminisce and think of their loved ones, wishing and hoping that perhaps, one day, they would meet again.
An interesting note regarding Chinese Holidays is that all of them are connected in one way or the other to a special type of food. During the Spring Festival people expect to have dumplings, on birthdays they expect special noodles.
During the Moon Festival, people eat Moon cakes; round, unique, brownish-looking cakes that symbolize the moon and are filled with sugar, fat, sesame, walnut, bean paste and egg yolk. Other variations have included Lotus Paste and quite recently and very untraditionally, chocolate, ice cream, coffee, butter and even exotic fruits.
It is a custom for Moon cakes to be given out as presents around the month of September, which is usually when the Moon Festival is held every year. This does vary, depending on what the Chinese calendar says.
Another interesting tidbit about the Moon cake and the Moon Festival is that it once played an important role to defeat an ancient enemy in the distant past of China. In the 14th century, the Chinese were suffering under the harsh rule of the Mongolians who had conquered them.
Unable to take anymore, the Chinese people secretly planned an uprising on the night of the Moon Festival. The leaders of this revolution took advantage of the custom of sending Moon cakes as gifts and instead of stuffing these cakes with traditional fillings, they added something extra special instead.
They wrote messages on paper about the planned revolution and either hid them inside the cake as filling or under the cake, unseen by the enemy. Soon after, the Chinese defeated and overthrew the Mongolians.
In Beijing, the Moon Festival has gone the way of many other Chinese holidays, becoming a victim of over commercialization, making it seem almost insignificant to many of today's younger Chinese. Nevertheless, the importance of the Moon and the festival associated with it will continue to play a big part in any Chinese person's life, especially and specifically the overseas Chinese.
One needs only to step out on the night of the Moon Festival, and watch in awe at the fullness of the Moon, its moonbeams streaking the dark sky, seemingly transforming night into day. (Visit the author's website at www.babbleon5.blogspot.com) |
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