On the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, the
moon is round and the Chinese people mark their Moon (or Mid-autumn)
Festival. The round shape to a Chinese means family reunion.
Therefore the Moon Festival is a holiday for members of a family
to get together wherever it is possible.
On that day sons and daughters will bring their family members
back to their parents' house for a reunion. Sometimes people
who have already settled overseas will come back to visit their
parents on that day.
As every Chinese holiday is accompanied by some sort of special
food. On the Moon Festival, people eat moon cakes, a kind of
cookie with fillings of sugar, fat, sesame, walnut, the yoke
of preserved eggs, ham or other material. In Chinese fairy tales,
there live on the moon the fairy Chang E, a wood cutter named
Wu Gang and a jade rabbit which is Chang E's pet. In the old
days, people paid respect to the fairy Chang E and her pet the
jade rabbit.
The custom of paying homage to the fairy and rabbit is gone,
but the moon cakes are showing improvement every year. There
are hundreds of varieties of moon cakes on sale a month before
the arrival of the Moon Festival this year. Some moon cakes
are of very high quality and very delicious. An overseas tourist
is advised not to miss it if he or she happens to be in China
during the Moon Festival.
Poems on Moon and Home
The Mid-Autumn Moon
by Li Qiao
A full moon hangs high in the chilly sky,
All say it's the same everywhere, round and bright.
But how can one be sure thousands of li away
Wind and perhaps rain may not be marring the night?
The Yo-Mei Mountain Moon
by Li Bai
The autumn moon is half round above the Yo-mei Mountain;
The pale light falls in and flows with the water of the Ping-chiang
River.
Tonight I leave Ching-chi of limpid stream for the three Canyons.
And glide down past Yu-chow, thinking of you whom I can not
see. |
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