Mooncakes

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 15 – Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, also called Moon Festival. It is the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar and celebrates the official start of fall. It is a holiday spent with family and/or friends, As with all holidays, having dinner together is important, then the evening (if possible) is spent gazing at the full moon, lighting lanterns, and eating mooncakes! Traditional mooncakes are a rich pastry, with sweet fillings of lotus seeds, red beans, nuts, or fruit, and a salted egg yolk in the very center. They are usually round to symbolize the moon. Because of their richness, they are not eaten whole, but cut into smaller wedges when served. There are many different types today, including snowskin mooncakes, which are made with a glutinous rice dough and are usually white or colored, and even frozen ice cream mooncakes! They are served with Chinese tea or fruit wines. Giving mooncakes as gifts is a tradition, so there are many, many options available to buy! Large, fancy, expensive packages, to smaller, single packaged individual ones. The majority come in pretty metal tins, I’m always tempted to buy them just for the tin! although I didn't get pictures of them this year!) I have a variety of mooncakes in the pictures:

Top: These are our homemade mooncakes :-) Middle left: These were ones we bought that we could eat because they had rice flour and bean starches instead of wheat flour, inside is egg yolk and black sesame. Middle center: This is a Starbucks snowskin mooncake. Middle right: Tins with snowskin and more traditional mooncakes. Bottom: Lots of gift packages to choose from at the supermarkets! 

Moon Goddess and Moon Rabbit

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 13 – Although Western Culture traditionally has a “man in the moon,” did you know that China (and some other Asian countries) have a lady and a rabbit in/on the moon? Celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival in China supposedly dates back more than 3000 years and although the legends vary slightly, the typical story is that Chang-e, now called the Moon Goddess, took either an elixir or pill of immortality and ended up making the moon her home. Her husband missed her so much that he gave sacrifices to her. Others soon followed, and starting worshipping the moon because of her, thus the beginning of the Mid-Autumn, or Moon Festival. In Chinese mythology (and many other cultures), there is also a rabbit, called the Moon Rabbit or the Jade Rabbit, who lives on the moon and makes elixirs for Chang-e with his pestle. So, you will often see them together in decorations for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Next time you look at the moon, see if you can find the Moon Rabbit and his pestle! Here is a short video of the more complete legend of Chang-e.

http://chinese4kids.net/the-legend-of-chang-e/

Today, Leah and I were in the ‘downtown’ Dongguan area and we passed this large display being set up. 

Toy Lanterns

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 12 – One of the traditions of the Mid-Autumn, or Chinese Moon Festival is for children to parade around carrying lanterns, under the full moon, on the festival night. Traditionally, these were handmade, often to look like animals or flowers, but today many can also be purchased ready-made. In addition to children carrying them, they can be hung in trees or around houses, some kinds are floated on water, and some are let loose to float skyward. The stores near us have many options for sale, from kits to make or decorate your own, basic paper accordion style lanterns, ones with modern day characters, and modern, plastic ones with flashing lights! Here are various lanterns we’ve seen for sale near us, as well as a couple pretty ones (with flowers and birds) that I bought for decorations :-)