Smeared Type

Moon Cakes

Yesterday was the Moon Festival. Several countries in Asia celebrate the festival. In China, it is also called the Mid-Autumn Festival. The closest equivalent in the U.S. that I can think of is Thanksgiving. Moon Festival is an occasion for the celebration of harvest. It is a time for families and friends to get together.  

The Moon Festival is the 15^th day of August in lunar calendar, which falls in late September or early October in Gregorian calendar. Traditionally, one item that everyone shares at this time is the moon cake, a round shaped, sweet cake made of flour and a variety of stuffing. Supposedly the moon is the fullest at this time.

When I was a child, the Moon Festival was always an occasion I was looking forward to. A moon cake was a big treat, and my mother usually cut one into six small pieces for my siblings and I to share. If we were lucky, there would a box of four moon cakes with different stuffing: red bean paste, lotus seed paste, five different nuts, or one of the above mixed with egg yolk. My favorite was always the red bean. I remember we picked a small piece and nibbled on it, relishing every bite. Sometimes, we also made paper lanterns. When night fell, we placed small candles inside the lanterns and lit them up. We ran around under the full moon, with these self-made lanterns in hands. The flickering of the candle light brightened our excited faces.

Then the Cultural Revolution came. It smashed everything that was considered “traditional” and “old.” For years, there was no celebration, moon cakes, or lanterns.

I am glad those “revolutionary” days are over. Today, many people in China and abroad celebrate the Festival. Families gather together, and friends give nicely packaged moon cakes as gifts. When I called my mother to wish her a happy Moon Festival yesterday, I was pleased to learn all my sisters and their husbands went home, to celebrate the Festival with her. I wish I could be there with them.

 Jian Ping, author of Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China. www.mulberrychild.com

Tags: celebration, Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Cake, Moon Festival

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 4th, 2009 at 11:40 pm and is filed under Jian Ping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.