The Mid-Autunn Festival primarily focuses on celebrating the moon, which is said to be at its most beautful at this time. The moon plays an important part in traditional Chinese culture, often being associated with thoughts of home (from reading classical Chinese poetry, one might get the idea that the ancient Chinese were always homesick!). A perfect illustration of this tendency is the following poem by the Tang Dynasty (618-907) poet Li Bai, perhaps the most famous poem in the Chinese language (the English translation is by yours truly):
床 前 明 月 光
疑 是 地 上 霜
举 头 望 明 月
低 头 思 故 乡.
A pool of bright moonlight before my bed--
I wonder: is it frost upon the ground?
To gaze at the bright moon I raise my head--
Then lower it with thoughts of my old town.
Perhaps the most famous traditional story connected with the Mid-Autumn Festival is that of Chang'E, the lady on the moon. The story relates that the beautiful Chang'E was married to Hou Yi, a skilled archer. One day, ten moons appeared in the sky, threatening the earth with their heat. The emperor ordered Hou Yi to shoot down nine of the suns. He did so and was consequently rewarded by one of the gods by being given a pill that conferred eternal life on whoever swallowed it. He was instructed to fast and pray before taking it. Unfortunately, his wife Chang'E swallowed the pill first and found herself flying to the moon, thus becoming, we might say, China's first astronaut. Ever since then she has remained on the moon, accompanied by a rabbit.
To many Chinese, the Mid-Autumn Festival would be incomplete without mooncakes. These are round (resembling the moon) or square in shape, and often filled with lotus seed paste or red bean paste, sometimes with an egg (representing the moon) in the middle. They tend to be rather sweet and heavy; consequently, they are often cut up into small pieces when being eaten. I have to say that I have never developed a great fondness for them: they tend to remind me of the Christmas fruitcake--a traditional holiday food that is perhaps better left uneaten (although my mother actually used to make a quite delicious fruitcake--perhaps it was the rum!). Nevertheless, Chinese people seem to go crazy for them--in the weeks before the holiday, grocery stores are stacked with boxes containing mooncakes, some rather expensive, and many are bought as gifts for family and friends (though I wonder if they all get eaten!). Ice cream maker Haagen Dazs has even gotten into the act, selling ice cream mooncakes, which have become rather popular (not surprisingly-- having eaten some, I have to say they are delicious). I have even seen one bakery chain here in China advertising "French style" mooncakes, a culinary innovation that I suspect would surprise the French.
Mooncakes are even associated with Chinese history, though no doubt the following story about them is apocryphal. It is said that near the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) , when the Mongols ruled China, plans for an uprising were hidden in mooncakes, which the Mongols did not eat. The uprising was successful and the Mongols were chased out, to be replaced by the native Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). So, you can see that mooncakes are not only an indispensable holiday tradition for the Chinese, but patriotic as well!
Speaking of Chinese patriotism (or, at least, "patriotism" as the Communist Party defines it), this year, the day after the Mid-Autumn Festival, October 1, is the National Day (国 庆 节 or Guoqingjie) of the People's Republic of China. It commemorates the day in 1949 when Chairman Mao Zedong stood on the rostrum of the famous Tiananmen ("the Gate of Heavenly Peace," in front of the former imperial palace) in Beijing and proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic in front of a huge crowd, adding that "the Chinese people have stood up!" For me, as an American, the holiday has little personal resonance, but it does mean a week off from work, which will afford me the chance to return to the U.S. for a short visit. Consequently, I should warn readers that blogging will be light or non-existent for the next week or two.
Image of mooncakes from Wikipedia.org