It's the Mid-Autumn Festival today!
The day in the Lunar Calendar when the moon is at its fullest.
On this day, people eat mooncakes, drink tea, admire the round full moon, play with lanterns, guess riddles written on strips of paper attached to lanterns, and eat pomelos.
Some people call it the Mooncake Festival or the Lantern Festival.
There are two legends surrounding the Festival.
The first is of the Lady of the Moon, Chang'er. There are a few variations to the tale, but this is the one I knew best, and is probably the most pleasant one. I think it was in my textbook at school, which might explain why they chose the relatively happier version.
Once upon a time, the earth was plagued by the scorching heat of ten suns. The skilled archer, Houyi, shot down nine of the suns, thus freeing the earth and its inhabitants from the sweltering hell of excessive heat. As a reward, the Emperor bestowed him a pill that granted immortal life. Houyi, happily married to the beautiful Chang'er, had no need for it, and so stowed it away in his pillow. However, his evil apprentice got wind of the existence of the pill, and one day, while Houyi was out, broke into his room to get at the pill to god-dom. Chang'er, beautiful but not blessed with either brute force or kick-ass martial arts, could do nothing to fend off the evil apprentice, and so, all she could do was swallow the pill herself to prevent the birth of an evil god. Upon doing so, our lovely lady floated up into the sky, and to the moon, where she remains to this day.
I also just read that the jade rabbit on the moon was apparently commanded by Chang'er to pound herbs to make another immortality pill so that Houyi can join her on the moon (which would make her a little less gentle, would it? That's animal labour!)
In Japanese lore, the rabbit on the moon pounds mochi, doesn't it? Hmm. I should google to find out why.
The second legend surrounding the Mid-Autumn festival is a rather more nationalistic one. During the Yuan Dynasty, China was under Mongolian rule. In order to pass the message of a mass uprising against the foreign rulers, rebel leaders (somehow I thought of Star Wars when I typed that out. Haha) decided to hide and thus transmit the message in mooncakes. Wikipedia tells me that on Mid-Autumn's night in 1368, they actually succeeded in overthrowing the Yuan Dynasty and established the Ming Dynasty. Hmmm.
Yeah, this is a more nationalistic story than the other one, though that has more nationalistic versions too.
You can read more on wikipedia!
You can also read the Japanese legend associated with Mid-Autumn on wikipedia here. I'm feeling too lazy to type it out. Also, I don't think I ever properly read it before today. However, it does seem very, very familiar. I think I must have heard it before, on Kannou Mukashibanashi I think. Oops. >//<
But yes, reading and thinking and typing about these legends has lifted me a little out of my 'whine, boo hoo poor me, all alone on this festival, and I can't even see the bloody moon' mood.
I did manage to catch glimpses of the moon beneath fast-moving clouds last night, though. By right I should be able to see it tonight, as it's a rare clear day after the rains of the past few days. But I can't seem to see it from my window, and am too lazy to leave the building.
Also had some mooncake, which wasn't that fantastic, I have to say. Received a huge box of 12 mooncakes, but many of them were of new-fangled, dodgy flavours. Brought some to school and shared them with my classmates, but with the ulterior motive of preventing myself from succumbing to diabetes and/or cardiac arrest if I were to finish them by myself.
I want the 'snow' skin mooncakes we get back home, though. Ah well.
When Mid-Autumn comes around, I also think of the only piece of Chinese poetry that I can vaguely remember by heart. It's by one of the greatest Chinese poets of all time, Li Bai, of the Tang Dynasty (618-917).
《静夜思》 李白
床前明月光，疑是地上霜。
举头望明月，低头思故乡。
It's about the glimmering moonlight in front of the well taking on the appearance of frost on the ground. The dude looks up and sees its the shining moon, and lowers his head again as he thinks of his hometown.
By the flow of this post, does it sound like I'm homesick?
Mm, I don't think I actually am. And I don't think I'm just being in denial about it. I think it's just that more than being simply homesick, I'm feeling nostalgic for my lost childhood and annoyed at myself for things in the present.
Today was a national holiday here, and I really was looking forward to flopping around the flat doing absolutely shit all, but as it turned out, I didn't get to feel too luxuriant in laziness.
I was going to write about some people I met, about astrology, and other random bits and blobs, but I think I'll leave that for another time or allow it all to get swallowed into the huge gaping and expanding black hole of Never-Blogged.
There's sushi for dinner tomorrow to look forward to.
P.S: Check out the Chang'er Google Doodle on www.google.com.hk/ !! ^~^
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