Well, I guess I can maybe chalk it up to age, but i don’t seem to be a able to keep track of things like I used to. I completely let something slip by a couple of days ago that I usually remind you of every year — kind of my way of doing public service stuff.
Tuesday of this week (September 21st) marked the Moon Festival — it’s also referred to as the Mid-Autumn Festival, but I like Moon Festival better.
No matter what you call it, it’s celebrated on month 8, day 15 of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, and it always falls in September or October (usually sometime between September 6 and October 6.) According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the 8th month is the second month of autumn. The four seasons each have three (about 30-day) months on the traditional calendars, so day 15 of month 8 is “the middle of autumn.”
On the 15th of each lunar calendar month, the moon is at its roundest and brightest, symbolizing togetherness and reunion in Chinese culture. Families get together to express their family love by eating dinner together, appreciating the moon, and eating mooncakes. The harvest moon is traditionally believed to be the brightest of the year.
Month 8, day 15 is also traditionally the time rice is supposed to mature and be harvested, so people celebrate the harvest and worship their gods to show their gratitude.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is also celebrated in many other Asian countries besides China — especially those with larger populations of Chinese descent, like Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and South Korea. The festival date in those countries is the same as in China, except in South Korea. In South Korea, the Mid-Autumn Festival is called Chuseok, and is more like Thanksgiving. It is celebrated one day before China’s Mid-Autumn Festival and is one of South Korea’s biggest holidays.
I’m sorry that we missed the Moon Festival this year, but Tuesday night we did spend some time gazing at the full Harvest Moon…..
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