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| Happy Mid-Autumn Festival ! blog.joy.com.tw/ |
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| Mid-Autumn Festival greeting card |
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| Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations in Victoria Park, Hong Kong |
Various Names
Mid-Autumn Festival is a popular harvest festival, mainly celebrated by the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. It is also known as the Moon Festival or Zhongqiu Festival, and dates back over 3,000 years to moon worshipping during China's Shang Dynasty. It was first named "Zhōng Qiū Jié" (the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation/pinyin, literally meaning "Mid-Autumn Festival") in the Zhou Dynasty, and may be written as 中秋節 in traditional Chinese or 中秋节 in simplified Chinese. In Malaysia, Singapore, and in the Philippines, it may also be referred to as "Lantern Festival" or "Mooncake Festival". Other variations of this festival in other countries include Tsukimi in Japan, Chuseok in Korea, and Tết Trung Thu in Vietnam which will be discussed later on in this article.
When?
Mid-Autumn Festival is a popular harvest festival, mainly celebrated by the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. It is also known as the Moon Festival or Zhongqiu Festival, and dates back over 3,000 years to moon worshipping during China's Shang Dynasty. It was first named "Zhōng Qiū Jié" (the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation/pinyin, literally meaning "Mid-Autumn Festival") in the Zhou Dynasty, and may be written as 中秋節 in traditional Chinese or 中秋节 in simplified Chinese. In Malaysia, Singapore, and in the Philippines, it may also be referred to as "Lantern Festival" or "Mooncake Festival". Other variations of this festival in other countries include Tsukimi in Japan, Chuseok in Korea, and Tết Trung Thu in Vietnam which will be discussed later on in this article.
When?
The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese/Lunar calendar, which is in late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. This date is parallel to the autumn equinox of the Solar calendar, when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day approximately equally long all around the world. It is also when the moon is at its fullest and roundest.
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| Full Moon www.3lian.com/gif/ |
Celebrations
This festival is one of the few most important holidays in the Chinese calendar, the others being Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and The Winter Solstice. It is a legal holiday in several countries.
Moon Worshipping
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| Tu Di Gong http://www.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/~linfs/custre/shen/smallwealth01.JPG |
According to folk legend, this day is the birthday of the earth god Tu Di Gong (土地公). The festival thus symbolises that the year's hard work in the fields will soon come to an end, with only the harvest left to attend to. Farmers celebrate by using this opportunity to express their gratitude to heaven (represented by the moon) and earth (symbolized by the earth god) for the blessings they have enjoyed over the past year.
Family members gather to appreciate the bright full moon and express strong yearnings toward their homes and think of family members who live far away. It is believed that praying to moon gods will bring protection, family unity and good fortune. This is also a time for lovers to tryst and pray for togetherness, symbolised by the roundness, peace and elegance of the moon.
Food
Mooncakes are the traditional food of this festival. Their traditional "roundness" are symbolic of family unity and closeness. In modern times, many mooncakes have evolved into a variety of different types, but continue to be enjoyed by celebraters in the same way. Pomelos are also eaten on this day. The Chinese word for "pomelo" or "grapefruit" is yu, which is homophonous with the word for "protection," yu, expressing the hope that the moon god give them protection. Other traditional foods are mainly red in colour; lobster, salmon, red apples, pomegranates, roasted peanuts, chestnuts, and fatt koh (sponge cakes).
A variety of mooncakes...
...with different fillings...
...of all shapes and sizes...
Introducing the relatively new "ice-coated mooncake" (冰皮月餅 or Bing Pi Yue Bing) which are beautiful to look at and have a variety of fillings...
Some parts of the Western society have also adopted to the tradition of making mooncakes...
A variety of mooncakes...
...with different fillings...
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| Nuts and Fruits |
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| Meat-filled Mooncake |
...of all shapes and sizes...
Some parts of the Western society have also adopted to the tradition of making mooncakes...
Other
Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as:
- People, especially children, carrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, and writing their wishes down on sky lanterns and lighting them so that he lanterns will float to the sky and bring their wishes to gods
- Burning incense in reverence to moon gods and deities including Chang E (嫦娥)
- Planting Mid-Autumn trees
- Collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members
- Performing Fire Dragon Dances as a traditional tribute to dragons, which are thought of as ancient heavenly creatures who ruled over weather conditions, which were extremely important to farmers
- In Taiwan, since the 1980s, barbecuing meat outdoors has become a widespread method of celebration
- Haze can usually be seen blocking the moon in Singapore.
Stories behind the Festival
The Legend of Houyi and Chang E
Celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival is strongly associated with the legend of Hou Yi and Chang E, the the Moon Godess of Immorality. According to Chinese mythology, the story of these two figures are set at around 2200 BCE, during the reign of the legendary Emporer Yao, shortly after that of Huangdi. Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures who personify the moon, Chang E simply lives on the moon but is not the moon per se.
There are many variants and adaptations of the legend of Chang E that frequently contradict each other. However, most versions of the legend involve some variation of the following elements: Houyi (the archer), an Emperor, either benevolent or malevolent, and an elixir of life.
One version of the legend states that Houyi was an immortal and Chang E, his wife, was a beautiful young girl, working in the palace of the Jade Emporer (a.k.a the Emporer of Heaven or 玉帝 pronounced Yùdì) as an attendant to the Queen Mother of the West (the Jade Emperor's wife or 皇母娘娘 pronounced Huang Mu Niangniang). Houyi aroused the jealousy of the other immortals, who then slandered him before the Jade Emperor. Houyi and Chang E, were subsequently banished from heaven. They were forced to live on Earth. Houyi had to hunt to survive and became a skilled and famous archer.
At that time, there were ten suns in the form of three-legged birds, residing from a mulberry tree in the eastern sea. Each day one of the sun birds would have to travel around the world on a carriage, driven by Xihe, the Mother of the Suns. One day, all ten of the suns circled together, causing the Earth to burn. Emperor Yao, the Emperor of China, commanded Houyi to use his archery skill to shoot down all but one of the suns. Upon completion of his task, the Emperor rewarded Houyi with a pill that granted eternal life. Emperor Yao advised Houyi not to swallow the pill immediately but instead to prepare himself by praying and fasting for a year before taking it. Houyi took the pill home and hid it under a rafter. One day, Houyi was summoned away again by Emperor Yao. During her husband's absence, Chang E, noticed a white beam of light beckoning from the rafters, and discovered the pill. Chang E swallowed it and immediately found that she could fly. Houyi returned home, realizing what had happened he began to reprimand his wife. Chang E escaped by flying out the window into the sky.
Houyi pursued her halfway across the heavens but was forced to return to Earth because of strong winds. Chang E reached the moon, where she coughed up part of the pill. Chang E commanded the hare that lived on the moon to make another pill. Her wish was to be able to return to Earth and her husband.
The legend states that the hare is still pounding herbs, trying to make the pill. Houyi built himself a palace in the sun, representing "Yang" (the male principle), in contrast to Chang E's home on the moon which represents "Yin" (the female principle). Once a year, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Houyi visits his wife when the moon is very full and beautiful.
This description appears in written form in two Western Han dynasty (206 BC-24 AD) collections; Shan Hai Jing (山海經; the Classic of the Mountains and Seas) and Huai Nan Zi, a philosophical classic.
Another version of the legend, similar to the one above, differs in saying that Chang E swallowed the pill of immortality because Peng, one of Houyi's many apprentice archers, tried to force her to give the pill to him. Knowing that she could not fight off Peng, Chang E had no choice but to swallow the pill herself.
Various pictures of Chang E illustrate a similar theme...
Other versions say that Houyi and Chang E were still immortals living in heaven at the time when Houyi killed nine of the suns. The sun birds were the sons of the Jade Emperor, who punished Houyi and Chang E by forcing them to live on Earth as mortals. Seeing how miserable Chang E feels about her loss of immortality, Houyi decided to find the pill that would restore it. At the end of his quest, he met the Queen Mother of the West, who agreed to give him the pill, but warned him that each person would only need half a pill to regain immortality. Houyi brought the pill home and stored it in a case. He warned Chang E not to open the case, and then left home for a while. Chang E became curious. She opened up the case and found the pill, just as Houyi was returning home. Nervous that Houyi would catch her discovering the contents of the case, she accidentally swallowed the entire pill, and started to float into the sky because of the overdose.
Some versions of the legend do not refer to Houyi or Chang'e as having previously been immortals and initially present them as mortals instead.
There are also versions of the story in which Houyi was made king as a reward for killing nine of the suns and saving the people. However, King Houyi was a despot who either stole a pill of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West or learned that he could make such a pill by grinding up the body of a different adolescent boy every night for a hundred nights. Chang E stole the pill and swallowed it herself, either to stop more boys being killed or to prevent her husband's tyrannical rule from lasting forever.
The Hare or The Jade Rabbit
According to tradition, the Jade Rabbit pounds medicine, together with the lady, Chang E, for the gods. Others say that the Jade Rabbit is a shape, assumed by Chang E herself. The dark areas to the top of the full moon may be construed as the figure of a rabbit. The animal's ears point to the upper right, while at the left are two large circular areas, representing its head and body.
Most pictures associate him with Chang E...
In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men, and begged for food from a fox, a monkey, and a hare. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the hare, empty-handed, jumped into a blazing fire to offer his own flesh instead. The sages were so touched by the hare's sacrifice and act of kindness that they let him live in the Moon Palace, where he became the "Jade Rabbit".
Overthrow of Mongol Rule
According to a widespread folk tale (not necessarily supported by historical records), the Mid-Autumn Festival commemorates an uprising in China against the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty (1280–1368) in the 14th century. As group gatherings were banned, it was impossible to make plans for a rebellion. Noting that the Mongols did not eat mooncakes, Liu Bo Wen (劉伯溫) of Zhejiang Province, advisor to the Chinese rebel leader Zhu Yuan Zhang (朱元璋), came up with the idea of timing the rebellion to coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival. He sought permission to distribute thousands of moon cakes to the Chinese residents in the city to bless the longevity of the Mongol emperor. Inside each cake, however, was inserted a piece of paper with the message: "Kill the Mongols on the 15th day of the 8th month" (traditional Chinese: 八月十五殺韃子; simplified Chinese: 八月十五杀鞑子). On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), under Zhu. Henceforth, the Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated with moon cakes on a national level.
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| Zhu Yuan Zhang, the first Emporer of the Ming Dynasty |
Tsukimi / Otsukimi (Japanese Version)
Tsukimi (月見) or Otsukimi, literally moon-viewing, refers to Japanese festivals honoring the autumn moon. Like the Mid-Autumn festival, celebration of the full moon takes place on the 15th day of the eighth month of the traditional Japanese Lunisolar calendar; and the waxing moon (the moon at any time before the arrival of the new moon and before the full moon) is celebrated on the 13th day of the ninth month. These days normally fall in September and October of the modern Solar calendar.
Celebrations
The tradition dates to back to the Joman period, and is now so popular in Japan that some people repeat the activities for several evenings following the appearance of the full moon during the eighth lunisolar month.
Tsukimi traditions include displaying decorations made from Japanese pampas grass (susuki) and eating rice dumplings called Tsukimi dango in order to celebrate the beauty of the moon. Seasonal produce are also displayed as offerings to the moon. Sweet potatoes are offered to the full moon, while beans or chestnuts are offered to the waxing moon the following month. The alternate names of the celebrations, Imomeigetsu (literally "potato harvest moon") and Mamemeigetsu ("bean harvest moon") or Kurimeigetsu ("chestnut harvest moon") are derived from these offerings.
Offerings of dango and sake...
History
Tsukimi refers to the Japanese tradition of holding parties to view the harvest moon. The custom is thought to have originated from Japanese aristocrats during the Heian period, who would gather to recite poetry under the full moon of the eighth month of the Lunisolar calendar, known as the "Mid-Autumn Moon." Since ancient times, Japanese people have described the eighth lunisolar month (corresponding to September on the contemporary Gregorian calendar) as the best time for looking at the moon, considering that the relative positions of the earth, sun, and moon cause the moon to appear especially bright. On the evening of the full moon, it is traditional to gather in a place where the moon can be seen clearly, decorate the scene with Japanese pampas grass, and to serve Tsukimi dango, taro (a type of green plant), edamame (a preparation of immature soybeans in the pod) chestnuts and other seasonal foods, plus sake as offerings to the moon in order to pray for an abundant harvest. These dishes are known collectively as Tsukimi dishes (月見料理 tsukimi ryōri). Due to the ubiquity of sweet potato or taro among these dishes, the tradition is known as Imomeigetsu (芋名月) or "Potato harvest moon" in some parts of Japan.
From 862 until 1683, the Japanese calendar was arranged so that the full moon fell on the 13th day of each month. In 1684, however, the calendar was altered so that the new moon fell on the first day of each month, moving the full moon two days later, to the 15th day of the month. While some people in Edo (present-day Tokyo) shifted their Tsukimi activities to the 15th day of the month, others continued to observe the festival on the 13th day. Furthermore, there were various regional observances in some parts of Japan on the 17th day of the month, as well as Buddhist observances on the 23rd or the 26th day, all of which were used as pretexts for often late-night parties during the autumn throughout the Edo period. This custom was brought to a swift end during the Meiji period.
Festivals dedicated to the moon have a long history in Japan, dating as far back as the Jomon period. During the Heian period elements of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival were introduced to Japan. Members of the aristocratic class would hold moon-viewing events aboard boats in order to view the moon's reflection on the surface of the water. The writing of tanka poetry (a type of short Japanese poem) was also an element of such mid-autumn moon viewing festivities.
There are specific terms in Japanese to refer to occasions when the moon is not visible on the traditional mid-autumn evening, including Mugetsu (無月 literally: no-moon) and Ugetsu (雨月 rain-moon). Even when the moon is not visible, however, Tsukimi parties are held.
Tsukimi Food
It is traditional to serve Tsukimi dango and seasonal produce offerings during Tsukimi, as described above. In addition, there are several other dishes associated with Tsukimi.
Boiled soba or udon noodles topped with nori (edible seaweed) and raw egg, then covered with broth are known as Tsukimi soba or Tsukimi udon. In Kitakyushu, an egg served atop yaki udon (thick, smooth, white Japanese noodles eaten with a special sauce, meat and vegetables) is known as Tenmado, another name for Tsukimi in the local dialect. At some fast food restaurants in Japan a special Fall Menu is offered during September and October featuring fried egg sandwiches known as Tsukimi burgers.
Tsukimi Food...
Chuseok (Korean version)
Chuseok (Korean: 추석), originally known as Hangawi (한가위) (from archaic Korean for "great middle"), is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Lunar calendar. Like many other harvest festivals, it is held around the Autumn Equinox. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food such as songpyeon.
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| Songpyeon |
Origins
Historically and according to popular belief, Chuseok originates from Gabae. Gabae started during the reign of the third king of the kingdom of Silla (57 BC - AD 935), when it was a month-long weaving contest between two teams. Come the day of Gabae, the team that had woven more cloth had won and was treated to a feast by the losing team.
Many scholars also believe Chuseok may originate from ancient shamanistic celebrations of the harvest moon.New harvests are offered to local deities and ancestors, which means Chuseok may have originated as a worship ritual.In some areas, if there is no harvest, worship rituals are postponed, or in areas with no annual harvest, Chuseok is not celebrated.
Traditional customs
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| A table with many traditional food offerings on it. |
In modern South Korea, on Chuseok there is a mass exodus of Koreans as they return to their hometowns to pay respects to the spirits of their ancestors. People perform ancestral worship rituals early in the morning. They often visit the tombs of their immediate ancestors to trim plants and clean the area around the tomb, and offer food, drink, and crops to their ancestors. Harvest crops are attributed to the blessing of ancestors.
One of the major foods prepared and eaten during the Chuseok holiday is songpyeon (송편), a crescent-shaped rice cake which is steamed upon pine needles. Other foods commonly prepared are japchae, bulgogi and fruits.
Folk game
A variety of folk games are played on Chuseok to celebrate the coming of Autumn and rich harvest. Village folk dress themselves to look like a cow or a turtle, and go from house to house along with a Nongak band playing music. Other common folk games played on Chuseok are tug of war, ssireum, archery and gama fighting. Folk games also vary from region to region. The Ganggangsullae dance, forming a circle under the moon is performed by women and children in southwestern coastal regions, and cockfighting or bullfighting occurs in the southern regions.
Tết Trung Thu (Vietnamese version)
The Vietnamese version of the holiday recounts the legend of Cuội, whose wife accidentally urinated on a sacred banyan tree, taking him with it to the Moon. Every year, on the mid-autumn festival, children light lanterns and participate in a procession to show Cuội the way to Earth.
In Vietnam, Mooncakes are typically square rather than round, though round ones do exist. Besides the indigenous tale of the banyan tree, other legends are widely told including the story of the Moon Lady, and the story of the carp who wanted to become a dragon.
One important event before and during Vietnamese Mid-Autumn Festival are lion dances. The dances are performed by both non-professional children group and trained professional groups. Lion dance groups perform on the streets go to houses asking for permission to perform for them. If accepted by the host, "the lion" will come in and start dancing as a wish of luck and fortune and the host gives back lucky money to show thankfulness.
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| Den ong sao - children playing with lanterns |
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