Happy Autumn Moon Festival!

Shout out to our Chinese compadres: today is the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, and the start of Mid-Autumn Festival. Confusingly, this is also sometimes called the 'August Moon Festival' (since August is the 8th month, see? We only think it's October because the lunar and Gregorian calendars are out of synch ... personally, I think we should all just go to Unix time, which is now 1160138417-ish). It's also called 'Autumn Moon Festival,' or just 'Moon Festival.'

This is a very old holiday. Though some have tried to assign its origin to events in relatively-recent history (e.g., the rebellion of Shu Yuan Zhang, who plotted to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty in the 14th century), others acknowledge that -- like US Thanksgiving -- whatever the politico-social dressing (or oyster stuffing, cranberry or, for that matter, Lotus-seed paste), it's really your basic, dawn-of-time, harvest moon festival. We're talking dances to the moon by flocks of exquisitely-dressed women, Moon poetry readings, lots of good stuff to eat (including the famous Moon Cakes), and if you happen to live in or near San Francisco's Chinatown, where Mid-Autumn festival is the best-attended fete of the year (even beating New Year), a great deal of street activity.

Good moon cakes, which are filled with Lotus-seed paste, egg yolks and other fillings, glazed with beaten egg, and stamped on top with pretty designs, characters, and pictures of the Jade Rabbit of the Moon (who's pounding ingredients for the Pill of Immortality in his mortar at the behest of Chang-O, the Moon goddess, who's ashamed because she stole the original Pill from her husband, Hou Yi, who later became the Sun god, but they worked it out and now he visits her on the 15th night of each lunar month, which is why the moon shines so brightly on that night -- it's all the energy liberated from mixing yin and yang ... you get all that?) are delicious. Despite the preponderance of recipes available online, very few people make their own or buy fresh, nowadays -- more's the pity. Instead, you get them in overpriced tins, like fruitcake at Xmas. Still good, but somewhat lacking in the soul department.

Posted by John Jainschigg at 11:19 AM  Permalink

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