Chinese Moon Festival

On September 14, as on every Sunday, I went over to my grandmother's house after church for lunch. When I entered her house, I found that a table was set-up in her living room, supporting a whole cooked chicken, other food items, some incense, and of course, moon cakes. This unusual display was because that Sunday was the Chinese Moon Festival. This festival, also called the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eigth moon (according to a lunar calendar), around the time of the autumn equinox. It is celebrated every year to greet winter, worship the moon, to celebrate life, and to recognize family and friends living away from one's home.

The food offerings on my grandmother's table were because, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also considered a harvest festival, because during this time harvests were plentiful and food was abundant. The most important offering, however, was the moon cake. According to legend, these cakes came about when the leaders of a rebellion hid secret messages containing the plans of their attack inside of specially made cakes. These cakes came to be called moon cakes, because the rebels planned the attack to take place during the Moon Festival. Moon cakes are typically made with a red bean paste and contain a whole egg yolk in the middle, to represent the full moon. I tried my first moon cake this year, and let's just say it did not agree with my taste buds.

Next year, I will walk into my grandmother's house more aware of the Moon Festival holiday and it's significance. However, I might be more careful to avoid the moon cakes!

Pearson, Chris. "Mooncake." To the Moon. 25 Sept. 2007. 16 Dec. 2008 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://markcole.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/mooncake1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://markcole.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/mooncake/&usg=__bqbrpfvq2vdmne62vek7b4gxzks=&h=314&w=347&sz=80&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=i36133bhcp1d3m:&t.