Moon festival, one of the most important festivals in Chinese culture is over 3000 years old and goes by many names such as Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Cake festival, Autumn Lantern festival, Lunar Harvest festival and particularly Taiwan it is also called Reunion festival and Bunny Girl ( NO, not the playboy one) Moon festival. Chinese origin people around the world are found celebrating this festival by stuffing their mouths with variety of moon cakes under the eighth full-moon of the year. Needless to say, I did not miss the opportunity to stuff my mouth with delicious cakes as well.
We have been very lucky to receive boxes of moon cakes and pomelo (see my blog on Exotic Fruits) from friends and colleagues for last few years in Taiwan. First year was difficult as most of the cakes I received had egg, pork and other non-vegetarian items and I could only ogle at pretty boxes but then it was corrected very quickly when a friend ordered special vegetarian moon cakes with stuffing such as mung bean, red bean, taro, dry fruits for us. They are just perfectly sweet in taste (think 30% less sugar than a typical milk sweet from India) and goes very well with oolong tea or red wine. Week before moon festival, office desks are piled with beautifully decorated moon cake boxes showing off the brands of the vendor. Imported ones from Hong Kong are gaining popularity and in this slightly pretentious culture you do see these high-end boxes on top of the piles.
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| Our box of KeeWah pastry |
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| Vegetarian Moon Cakes before I over ate |
Now, on the day of the festival, typical Taiwanese family will gather for a barbeque feast under the moon. Motto of the day is to “eat, eat, eat, drink, eat, eat, drink, eat, eat … “according to one of my colleague. By the way, barbequing on this day is very unique to Taiwan which has emerged as a custom only in last twenty years and hence largely attributed to economic development and western influence by the outsiders. During my first year in Taiwan, I saw people on the streets, walkways and parks barbequing in the open, sneakily shouting “Gan-bei” followed by gulping their disposable cups of “pijio”, enjoying moon cakes and sometimes remembering to check out the moon through a thick smoke cloud that forms above their mobile barbeque pit. Friendly as ever, Taiwanese people will never forget to share their food with the passers-by. There are also many moon-roof parties organized these days which tends to demean western styles than traditional Chinese culture. Whatever the setting, its time of the year to celebrate with your loved ones and remember the ones you love under the moon light.
This year we were in Beijing for the Moon Festival. We heard that this year Green movement had taken a strong stand in Taiwan for the sake of the environment, road side barbequing was prohibited but dedicated parks were created for open barbeque so people can still enjoy in the 20 yr old custom. I guess I missed the Taiwanese clean, green Moon Festival this year.
Beijing was on a completely different scale. We tried to stay away from the main areas of Moon Festival celebration to avoid the crowds but our attempt was vain. We literally floated through tempestuous ocean of people throughout the day wherever we went. But as the evening set in many government buildings were beautifully lit, red lanterns decorated popular streets and dragons were seen ready to roar and dance that night. Unfortunately (or not), it was a cloudy night in Beijing with no moon in sight so it was a night best spent in the hotel room with a dim night lamp mimicking the moon ;) After a sumptuous dinner we headed back to the room and hoped to catch festivities on the TV. The most popular coverage seemed to be the continuous live coverage of the world’s biggest tidal bore on the Qingtang River (check out videos and images by google search, its really something) that comes every year during this festival. According to the TV coverage, it was considered one of the natural wonders of the World at one point but I am not sure how true that is in a world outside of China. Thousands of people had camped out and gathered by the river shore to watch this wonder wave under the full-moon light today while I virtually thanked the live Moon coverage for a loving husband and embraced him in the faint moon-light that fell on our bed from the TV.
So you made it to China!! Beautiful post.
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