I was wandering through Borders a few weeks ago, taking in a dose of air conditioning to perk me up for the walk home, when I saw the first of what turned out to be many headlines in the local health and fitness magazines on the same topic: “How to Survive Mooncake Season.”
Mooncake season? Huh? I had no idea!
Mooncakes are small, round, beautiful pastries traditionally given as gifts and eaten during the Chinese mid-Autumn festival. The more traditional ones are filled with red bean paste or lotus seed paste and sometimes yolks from salted duck eggs (which tastes better than it sounds). However, there are literally hundreds of choices, as my daughter and I discovered when we went to buy a box to take to dinner at a friend’s house. Not only were there an amazing number of choices (including mint chocolate chip, yam, green tea, even tiramisu), but the lovely lady selling them would not hear of us making a selection without tasting them all!
All of this pastry eating leads up to the mid-Autumn festival, or moon festival, held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, a day that generally coincides with the full moon and, in the Western calendar, the autumnal equinox.
A joyous festival, traditionally preceded by the harvest and a settling of all delinquent accounts, the whole idea is to relax and celebrate. It celebrates the moon goddess, Chang’e, who lives in the moon with a jade rabbit. The stories of how she became immortal vary, and sometimes contradict each other, but most involve her unintentional separation from her beloved husband, Hou’yi the archer, and an elixir of life that was supposed to make both of them immortal, so they can be together forever. However, vice and treachery intervene and only Chang’e takes the elixir, but the double dose lifts her toward heaven. In one story, Chang’e decides to live in the moon because it is closest to the earth and her heart remains in the world of mortals. In some versions of the story, Hou’yi gets to visit Chang’e each year, on the night of the moon festival.
Down here on earth, we and many other families, gathered in the moonlight to look at the many beautiful and elaborate lanterns hung in honor of the holiday, and to enjoy the night. Children carry their own lanterns, often lit by candles, couples snuggle on benches, and people write wishes on red ribbons attached to shiny disks and throw them into a beautiful “Wishing Tree.”
Frankly, this is my kind of holiday. Walking in the moonlight with the people I love best, eating cake, and hoping dreams will come true. It doesn’t get much better than that.
No comments:
Post a Comment