Mid Autumn Festival - Moon Festival

Festival Location: All Areas, China

Festival Type(s): Lunar Events | Full Moon Parties , Harvest Festivals , Natural Phenomenon Festivals

Mid Autumn Festival - Moon Viewing and Moon Cakes

by © Emily Strauss 2008

Some countries call it Harvest Festival; there is a Harvest moon. Others note the autumnal equinox as a sign of the changing seasons. Here in China, they call it the Mid-Autumn festival, celebrated during the full moon that falls between the mid-September and mid-October. On this night of the full moon, tradition says that you sit outdoors with your family throughout the night, admiring the moon, talking, and eating special sweet cakes called Moon Cakes. Though not a major festival, it is noteworthy to foreign visitors for two reasons.

Most visible at this time of year are the ubiquitous moon cakes, palm-sized, square or round dense cakes consisting of a thin dough shell filled with a variety of sweet confections. The filling is often a fruit jelly, or sweetened lotus-seed or red bean paste, or a mixture of chopped dried dates and nuts. They are delicious, filling, and undoubtedly fattening as well. One or two would be enough for a sample, one a day for a week or so would be plenty. However, the Chinese are as good at commercialism as we are at Christmas, and Mid-Autumn festival or "moon cake" festival is not a commercial opportunity to miss.

Thus, at least a month before the full moon date, moon cakes begin to appear in stores and bakeries. At sometimes nearly a dollar apiece, they are expensive by local standards, and at first you would buy a couple just to remember their sweet, rich taste after a year. However, as the full moon approaches, moon cakes sprout everywhere. They are exchanged like Christmas cards, so there are countless highly decorated paper boxes of every size and shape filled with various moon cakes prominently displayed near the check-out counter at every store. You buy a small box for your co-workers, a larger assortment for your boss, a huge box for that official whom you've had some business dealings with lately. They buy some for you too, especially if you're a lau wai (a foreigner), so you can experience their culture. Then you have to buy some to take home to the family, of course, because the kids will want some.

Suddenly you are awash in moon cakes, on your desk, at the reception counter, on the living room table. Soon there are outdoor stands selling moon cakes to pushing hoards of last-minute shoppers who hadn't managed to buy any yet. Eventually, they become like the proverbial fruitcake at Christmas, never eaten but passed around from giver to giver. I know plenty of people who will turn around and give that latest assorted box away to the next person on their list. No one can stand to look at them anymore, let alone eat them, and many people don't like them in the first place. By the actual full moon date, no one is much interested in eating moon cakes at all anymore, but there's that lovely full moon, and what the heck, we'll eat just one more. Of course afterwards, people like me, who love moon cakes no matter when, will go around to everyone's desk, where all those brightly-wrapped moon cakes still sit, unclaimed, and ask, "hey, do you want that?" "No, go ahead," is the usual answer, and I will scoop it up and have just one more with my morning cup of tea. And why not, since they will soon disappear for another year.

But the real part of Mid-Autumn festival is the gazing at the full moon. This is a night for poets to celebrate its beauty, for families to sit outside in the cooling air of late summer, away from the often-stifling heat of their apartments, for young couples to have an excuse to walk close together for an evening.

There are a number of famous places for Mid-Autumn moon viewing, including one in Hangzhou, on West Lake. This is one of those places reputed to offer the finest viewing circumstances; it is called Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, a classical Chinese descriptive name. It consists of a string of three small towers set into the shallow lake, each of which has five holes that release shafts of light from candles lit on this evening. You would get rowed out on a small flat craft, and sit with your lover quietly watching the moon rise. Ah, how romantic, how lovely. A thousand years ago, if you were a noble person, rich, you might be allowed to join the small band of boats gathered on the waters, and it would indeed have been magical. But that was then, and this is now.

Now China has the largest population of any country on earth, and there are plenty of people with disposable incomes who can now afford to visit West Lake on Mid-Autumn festival; why not visit such a classic and famous viewing place? And so they do, by the thousands. It's just a matter of numbers. Anyplace renowned for something is full of people. So you would take your loved one, or your family, out for a stroll around West Lake on this full moon evening, and join a parade of others, all walking, talking and eating along the way. Even if everyone spoke only in subdued tones, which Chinese seldom do, the sheer volume would add up quickly. Then you would be surrounded by every conceivable type of sidewalk vender selling balloons, artfully-shaped hardened sugar on a stick, grilled pork, roasted sweet potatoes, and a dozen other things. Trash would be liberally strewn underfoot, young kids would be screaming and playing, and you can't help but notice that the lake isn't terribly clean. But that full moon is still overhead, still beautiful in reflection on the water, and the evening air is still cool and fresh. So why not enjoy it in the company of others? And don't forget the moon cakes!

China is a fascinating country and Mid-Autumn festival is a nice reminder of the changing seasons. If you happen to be here in mid-September, do look for the moon cakes; they are delicious in moderation. And if you happen to be in Hangzhou, or any other famous moon-viewing venue, go out and enjoy yourself, mingle with the locals, stroll and take in the evening air, and look at that moon!