HEAD: MAGIC OF THE AUTUMN MOON

here is an article i wrote several years ago on one of my favourite hong kong holidays. it was this weekend. today was a holiday in hong kong ~ we all celebrated by going to lunch with stephanie and jane and all our children (4 adults, 11 children, five under 18 months!) and then to the american club for a busy swim and play in the playground.

Tess Lyons explores the historical traditions surrounding one of Hong Kong's most celebrated holidays - the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.

Head out to the wet market for permissons and baby yams - for these are the preferred offerings of the gods during the approaching Mid Autumn Moon Festival.

The Moon Festival, which operates according to the lunar calendar, falls on the 15th day of the 18th moon, when legend claims the moon is at its brightest and biggest. Normally, the festival is celebrated in September, however as this year's lunar calendar has two fifth months, this year the holiday falls on 5 October. (in 2005 the holiday was 17 september).

In past decades, the Moon Festival was a three-day celebration often marked by family reunions. On the first day, worshippers welcomed the moon. The next day was the actual celebratory feast day. The third day was supposed to be devoted to bidding the moon goodbye. While the festival is now a one day celebration, it is still known as a traditional time to spend with family and friends.

LANTERNS

The use of lanterns to symbolise joy dates back to the beginning of the Tang Dynastry when lanterns were used a source of light during the Chinese New Year.

In the days leading up to and throughout the Moon Festival, brightly coloured lanterns adorn doorways, hawkers stalls and shops. The lanterns are held by lovers, children, adults and parade participants. Even high end retail shops have exquisitely created lanterns, often proferring their store's logo.

Lanterns in Hong Kong can either be mass-produced or painstakingly handmade by those who have the talent and spare time to indulge in this ancient art form.

Lantern-making calls for an age old-division of labour. Men wind bamboo sticks together to form a frame, securing it with tiny pieces of white paper and glue. The lantern "skeleton" is then passed on to a female who carefully glues coloured, crepe paper to the frame. In recent years, shiny, transparent paper has replaced the more expensive, easily ripped crepe paper. The lanterns are usually shaped as rabbits, fish and fruit.

While all of the hand-crafted lanterns are delicately made, perhaps the most exquisite is the revolving lantern. Covered with hand-painted flowers and maidens gazing moon, these are the most expensive because of the intricate handiwork involved in creating them.

Modern lanterns, preferred by the majority of youngsters, are shaped like cartoon characters, spaceships, planes and tanks. Instead of candles, battery operated light bulbs with automatic switches illuminate the lanterns. As well, most kid oriented lanterns also shriek out "It's a small world after all". The cultural significance of that particular song has yet to be unearthed by this reporter. Possibly it was voted the most annoying?

But why does the Mid Autumn Moon Festival mean so much, to so many? Is it a North American Thanksgiving, minus the turkey?

TRADITION

CHANG O

The Moon Festival was origally held to mark the end of a successful harvest season. Tradition and legend worked to create a colourful and exciting celebration. For example:

Some 3,500 years ago, the Divine Archer Hou Yih shot down nine of the 10 suns that were scorching the crops of the earth. As a reward, the Queen Mother of the Western Heaven gave Hou Yih a magic tablet that would make him immortal. After a number of years, Hou Yih's wife, Chang O, noticed that her husband was slowly turning into a tyrant. She swallowed the pill herself in order to prevent a Hou Yih from forever ruling the world. (have illustration of Chang O alongside above para., possibly top right hand page?

Hou Yih caught Chang O in the act of swallowing the pill and in his anger, pulled the last arrow out of his quiver. In an attempt to escape certain death, Chang O ran to the moon. When she arrived, she was so out of breath that she spat out the tablet, which promptly turned into a jade rabbit. To this day, valiant Chang O and her faithful Jade Rabbit sit on the moon. (same instructions as above, middle page surround text.)

YEUH LEO-YEH

Yeuh Leo-yeh, better known as the Old Man of the Moon, presides over all earthly marriages. Therefore, he is extremely popular with unwed females. As all marriages are made in heaven and prepared on the moon, the old man's decisions are irreversible. Each year, he occupies himself by making potential matches. He does this by tying couples together with invisible pieces of red string.

When midnight strikes on the night of the Moon Festival, young women seeking husbands approachje the temples, pray for a partner and then leave the temple. As they do so, they throw an oracle bone into the night. The way the bone points after it falls reveals the direction the woman needs to walk in order to find her future husband.

(although not a sidebar, could we have a red piece of string surrounding this? tied in a knot at the bottom?)

DONG YUNG

One day during the eighth month, Dong Yung was scorned by a group of boys he was wanting to play with. The sound of his tears falling attracted the attention of the god Wu Gang, who lifted Dong Yung to heaven. Once there, he was reunited with his mother who had died some years earlier. She made him some round cakes to celebrate and for a short time, they were happy together until the Jade Emperor demanded the boy's return to earth. Dong Yung grew to be a powerful and strong government official. Every year during the Moon Festival he ordered his subjects to bake him cakes resembling those his mother had made for him the day he visited heaven.

(johanna: i will check again with library to see if they have managed to dig up pic of Dong Yung. if not, shall we run the pic from last year's feature story?)

ZHU YUANZHANG

Mooncakes were first made during the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271-1368). The Chinese were revolting against the Mongols, who were billeted in the Chinese villages. In order to contact the villagers and enlist their support, Chinese warrior Zhu Yuanzhang slipped messages into round cakes that read, "Revolt on the night of the full moon." The round cakes were delivered to each household.

Families hung brightly lit lanterns from their windows to acknowledge they had received the message and that they had agreed to the plan. The strategy was successful, the Mongols were overthrown and Chinese emperors were returned to the throne at the start of the Ming Dynasty.

With four legends to remember during Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, people will worship the brave Chang O, pray for answered prayers from the man on the moon, remember Dong Yung and acknowledge the ingenuity of Chinese ancestors.

I lift my head to see the bright moon

And hang my head in my nostalgia for home

-Li Bai

(AS A SIDEBAR)

CREATING MOONCAKES

Mooncakes are symbolic of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and are traditionally given as gifts to friends and family.

Mooncakes are usually made between four days and a month before the festival and their round shape is meant to honour the moon.

Before the festival, hotel and street bakeries stock up with moon cakes. Plain mooncakes are either stuffed with mashed red beans or lotus seeds, while the fanier cakes bulge with ingredients such as salted egg yolks, melon seeds, lumps of pork fat, strips of candied melon, roast chicken and ham.

The act of making mooncakes is a time consuming and delicate process.

Large quantities of lotus seeds and red beans are boiled and then peeled. They are then ground to a fine powder. The powder is cooked with sugar and peanut oil or lard until it forms a thick paste. The paste is left for a full 24 hours. The following day the chef pours the paste on to a table and kneads it in order to remove the lumps. There are also the extremely fattening, not so traditional double yolk mooncakes.

The dough is divided for various types of mooncakes. A pinch of dough is wrapped around the filling and then placed in a mould. The baker stacks the mould against the side of the table and places the mooncake on a baking tray.

Baking is done in three stages. The first stage is with a very hot oven which will set the cakes. They are then taken out and glazed with egg yolk to give them a brown sheen. They are returned to the oven and left to cook for several minutes before being given a second yolk glaze. A further couple of minutes in the oven completes the process.

The trick of moon-cake making is getting the pastry the right texture--delicate but resilient enough to last the heat of the oven.

(AS A SIDEBAR)

DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, DIFFERENT TRADITIONS (will come up with something better)

South Koreans celebrate the holiday with a four-day celebration called Chusok. During Chusok, relatives father to honour their dead ancestors by pracitising family rituals and visiting grave-sites.

In Singapore, much emphasis is placed on mooncakes. Optional fillings include durian, pineapple and green peas. Lanterns are specially flown in from China and are proudly displayed at Singapore's Chinese Garden.

In Japan, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival falls on the same day every year - 18 August. Traditions are especially closely observed in northern Japan. Rice dumplings called tsukimidango, are served with fruit and dedicated to the full moon.

China has a variety of special customs to commemmorate the Mid-Autumn Moon festival. In Nanjin, barren women go to the temples and pray for children while burning paper money and incense. They then cross a bridge in the hopes the magic water underneath will assist them in conceiving.

Comments

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Thanks for sharing this article, Tess. One of my Chinese students has been looking forward to "mooncakes day" with great excitement. Now I have some idea what it's all about.

Posted by: Elaine D | September 20, 2005 at 12:20 AM