Mid-Autumn Festival
Bright lights hung from the trees, special cakes for treats, gifts for friends and associates, and family dinners together. Christmas in September? No, this is the Mid-Autumn Festival! It’s a full moon in a few nights, and this is the time to celebrate “the third and last festival of the living”. The cakes are “moon cakes” – a special concoction with sweet taste in the traditional flavor, but may have a cooked egg yolk in the center.It’s a pretty special time of the year here. From what I can tell it’s one of the biggest holiday seasons. It does not rival the huge celebration for the Chinese New Year. That’s a full week.
The event is timed with the full moon and at the end of harvest season. It is a time for families to gather in reunion. Those that cannot gather to view the full moon in reflection in knowing loved ones that cannot be together are doing the same thing. The worship of the moon goes back over 3000 years.
The moon cakes popularity is steeped in many legends and lore. One has it related to the love messages of a prisoner. The more famous and respected story has it that the Chinese were unhappy with rule by Mongolians during the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280). They prepared a successful overthrow during the Moon Festival in the autumn, and distributed secret messages of attack inside small cakes.
My friends at Decca love a celebration, so we had another special party Wednesday night for this occasion. It started with drawings for gifts for the employees as they finished their shifts. They huddled in the plant courtyard for a long period in the celebration. Decorations were everywhere. And I mean everywhere. The courtyard had banners. The “hotel” courtyard was brightly lit with lanterns. Even the chicken pen had strings of tree lights and lanterns. I wonder if the chickens enjoyed the extra lighting.
The management team had a special buffet at the “hotel”. Mr. Tsung led the partaking of the food and we all soon had plates full of sushi, sashimi, sweet & sour pork, and a host of other Chinese treats. Tsingtao, the famous Chinese beer or pijoue was freely flowing, and soon Great Wall red wine was as well too. I even found some sliced ham at the buffet. It had a little of everything.
As I’m finding is standard Chinese tradition, the toasts got going strong very soon. I’m finding it good to be behind the camera to minimize the partaking of the toasts. My link to pictures of this event is:
http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=abrysoninchina&p=1A55&AID=2832355
Mid-Autumn Festival Info:
http://www.chinavoc.com/festivals/Midautumn.htm
posted by A Bryson (formerly) in China @ 1:15 PM
Comments: 0
