Mid-Autumn Festival--the tender & emotional reunion for Chinese people
Smell that? The cool breeze of autumn is blowing with the tempting smell of Moon Cakes. Right, it is Mid-Autumn Festival again, the second grandest festival after the Spring Festival in China. It is a day of family reunions much like a western Thanksgiving.
It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese lunar calendar, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. It just paints a beautiful and emotional picture for every Chinese to get together with family, gaze at the moon, and eat mooncakes. Traditions become so agreeable when they care for people's feelings and touch people in the heart. I think this is the reason why the Mid-Autumn Festival can last thousands of years and may survive a long long time from now.
The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival derived from the tradition of worshipping the Goddess of Moon, Chang'e. The festival is also a time to celebrate a good autumn harvest. It dates back thousands of years and the modern-day festive customs were gradually formed over the years.
Chinese worship the Goddess of Moon, Chang'e all kinds of delicious moon cakes
Traditional foods for a Chinese Mid-Autumn feast are traditionally served for the Goddess of Moon with a wish of good luck for the whole family. The first and foremost is certainly the Moon Cakes. For generations, moon cakes have been made with sweet pastes of lotus seed, sweet bean, jujube, or a combination of mixed nuts. Usually a salty egg yolk can be found in the middle of the rich tasting dessert. In today's modern age they come in a broad range of flavors from meat to fruit to chocolate.
People in different parts of China enjoy different customs to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. Down here in Guangzhou, a huge lantern show is a big attraction for local citizens. It is an exciting carnival! And electrical or traditional lanterns are sold at the street stand. And people are fascinated with the little games like word puzzles. Children are delighted to stay up to midnight, parading multi-colored lanterns around and just have fun.
The huge lantern show exhibites varied kinds of large-sized lanterns which people oftern marvel at
Various parts of the country and all ethnic minorities have different Mid-Autumn Festival customs. In Nanjing, the festival coincides with the blooming season of sweet-scented osmanthus flowers. Local people like to pick fresh osmanthus flowers for delicious food preparing. They traditionally eat osmanthus flower ducks and drink the flower juice. In Zhejiang, the Mid-Autumn Festival is an ideal time for tide watching. Fire dragon dances are usually performed in Hong Kong on the festival and people in Anhui do a game called "pagoda building" and the Dai ethnic people pay tribute to the moon and the Gaoshan ethic people usually perform ball-holding dance. All these interesting customs are an indication of people's love of life and good wishes for a better future.
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