more thoughts on mid-autumn festival

Mid-Autumn Festival has come and gone, and I thought I’d share about how we celebrated and few more things I’ve learned about the holiday.

Many Chinese traditions, superstitions and customs come from homonyms and symbolism. Legend has it that a few Mid-Autumn customs took their root from the middle of the 15th century, at the end of the Yuan dynasty when the Han people (the ethnic group that makes up the majority of the Chinese population today) were ruled by the Mongolians. At that time, the Chinese word for “Mongolians” sounded very similar to the word for “duck”, so ‘eating duck at Mid-Autumn’ became a code for ‘overthrowing the Mongolians’ during Mid-Autumn. It is still customary to eat duck around this season.

The mooncake is the most popular thing to eat and gift during Mid-Autumn, and this also has a connection to the overthrowing of the Yuan dynasty! It is said that in place of the yolk that is traditionally found inside the mooncake, revolutionaries would place messages about overthrowing the Mongols and propagate their plans. Interesting that this holiday has so many revolutionary connections! I wonder if the mooncakes were a predecessor for the invention of fortune cookies and sending messages inside a baked good?

Like most Chinese holidays, the focus is on celebrating family, togetherness and food! The Mid-Autumn Festival is a time to celebrate and mark the turning of seasons. It is the time for a great harvest - definitely something worth celebrating - and perhaps one last hurrah before everyone bunkers down for the colder weather. It also has its roots in moon worship - the Chinese see a full moon as a symbol of peace and reunion - and since the Mid-Autumn moon is said to be the largest and brightest full moon of the year, what better time to come together to celebrate by sharing a meal of things that remind us of the moon, looking at the moon, thanking the moon, writing and enjoying poetry about the moon etc. etc. etc. We just love the moon!

So what did we end up doing as a family?

On Friday, I went to my daughter’s pre-school and read “Mooncakes” by Loretta Seto (fellow UBC alum!). I really love this book as it tells three different legends about the moon and its residents in a very accessible way for kids. Note that there are many, many variations of these legends! I have a few books on Mid-Autumn at home and they all tell these stories differently, but to give you the gist, here are some links to these stories:

• The Legend of Chang’e

• The Legend of Jade Rabbit

• The Legend of Wu-Gang

The story was followed by a sampling of fruit mooncakes. The kids were quite excited to try the sweet and sticky treat. I was excited and surprised by how many kids were willing to try it and how much they enjoyed it! I definitely hold a lot of internalized racism from my own childhood that all non-Asian people will find Chinese foods “weird”, “gross” or “yucky”. So anytime I share any cultural foods with non-Asian people, I brace myself for that apprehension and rejection. (Still so much to work though!)

In the evening, we went out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant in town where we enjoyed noodles (which symbolize a long life) and BBQ duck. For dessert we ate egg tarts and HK style egg waffles - both round like the moon, and made with eggs (which are also round!). Though the kids were asleep by the time the moon made an appearance in the night sky, my partner and I got to moongaze for a little while before bed.

On Saturday morning, we had some friends over for more round moon-shaped foods: pancakes, blueberries, cherries, oranges - and of course, more mooncakes. Though the mooncakes weren’t the most popular food with anyone, I’m really glad I found some to try and share with friends and family this year. They’re very beautifully crafted, and it’s been fun to re-discover a food from childhood in a new way. I’d be interested in making my own next year, and experimenting with fillings that we may enjoy more, given our ‘western palette’.

Other books we enjoyed through the week were "Thanking the Moon" and "A Big Mooncake for Little Star" by Grace Lin, and "Round is a Mooncake" by Roseanne Thong.

Overall I would say we had a fun and educational week of exploring the traditions and legends around Mid-Autumn Festival and celebrating the bright and beautiful Harvest Moon.