I love holidays. Especially any holiday that gives you 3 days off in the middle of the week. Mid-Autumn festival is a beautifully timed break coming 3 weeks after my 2 week home leave to Canada. Of course like everything in China there is a complicated logic that is attached to this time off.
This year the 15th day of the 8th lunar month falls on a Thursday. And it is a statutory day off in many Asian countries. In most countries we would have to take the day off and then return to work the next day. Mid-week celebrations of Canada Day always felt unfair to me. Fortunately the Chinese government is much more sympathetic to it's people. Instead of leaving the day off floating in the middle of the week or making people use precious vacation days to make a long weekend, the Chinese government wisely performs a "weekend shift". This means we have Thursday, Friday and Saturday off but have to go to work on Sunday. It sucks to have a 6 day work week the next week but the weekend shift makes it easier for people to travel back home to their families to celebrate the holiday. It also means chaos at border crossings, airports, train stations and major highways...and some really complicated tracking of days off.
I know, it is confusing. But I am extremely grateful for the abundance of time off. Most of us expats spend a lot of our time being exhausted. Work is tough and just living is a challenge because of language barriers.
It is also a nice chance to learn more about the Chinese culture. According to Wikipedia, the Mid- Autumn Festival Also know as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, MAF (as we call it in Walmart) celebrates three fundamental concepts which are closely tied to one another:
- gathering - such as family and friends coming together, or harvesting crops
- thanksgiving - to give thanks for the harvest, or for harmonious unions
- praying - (asking for conceptual or material satisfaction), such as for babies, a spouse, beauty, longevity, or for a good future
So really MAF is the Chinese version of thanksgiving with moon cakes instead of turkey.
Moon cakes are the traditional gift for this holiday and family rituals are built around the moon cake. You should eat your moon cake with pomelo under the new Harvest moon as a family unit. The oldest member of the family will cut up the moon cake and share the pieces amongs the family. Here is a picture of the traditional moon cake with an egg inside:
They are beautifully crafted, with elaborate designs and come in many flavours. Looking at them you are really tempted to take a big bite. And as a newcomer to China you could easily believe that they were a favourite delicacy - the shelves of stores are filled with massive amounts of moon cakes in all sizes, many being displayed in beautiful decorative tins.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that Moon Cakes are the fruitcake of Asia. There are stories of moon cakes being regifted for years, moving from family to family and co-worker to co-worker. And most are never eaten. Because most people feel they taste terribly - a co-worker likened them to the taste of death. Fortunately my team has told me I don't need to eat the moon cakes - it is okay to thank the giver profusely and then throw them out. If more people adopted this approach we would end the re-gifting epidemic once and for all.
Of course Walmart China adheres to tradition and is part of the moon cake conspiracy. We received (from the Union - I should really blog about that soon) moon cakes as part of the wonderful gift pack we received. In addition to two types of moon cakes (BlackBerry and Durian - which really smells like ass) we logically received 3 litres of milk, a bottle of French Wine and a cutlery set.
So I threw out the moon cakes (no one wanted them), gave the milk to team members with kids and took home the cutlery set and the bottle of wine. And instead of following the Chinese tradition I toasted the Harvest Moon with some Canadians, sitting at an Irish Pub, eating Greek Salad and Hummus. At least I was in China and took a look at the moon. Right?
For a bit more on the mythology of MAF see the following excerpts from Lihui Yang's Handbook of Chinese Mythology:[8]
In the ancient past, there was a hero named [Hou] Yi who was excellent at shooting. His wife was Chang'e. One year, the ten suns rose in the sky together, causing great disaster to people. Yi shot down nine of the suns and left only one to provide light. An immortal admired Yi and sent him the elixir of immortality. Yi did not want to leave Chang'e and be immortal without her, so he let Chang'e keep the elixir. But Feng Meng, one of his apprentices, knew this secret. So, on the fifteenth of August in the lunar calendar, when Yi went hunting, Feng Meng broke into Yi's house and forced Chang'e to give the elixir to him. Chang'e refused to do so. Instead, she swallowed it and flew into the sky. Since she loved her husband very much and hoped to live nearby, she chose the moon for her residence. When Yi came back and learned what had happened, he felt so sad that he displayed the fruits and cakes Chang'e liked in the yard and gave sacrifices to his wife. People soon learned about these activities, and since they also were sympathetic to Chang'e they participated in these sacrifices with Yi.
Yang describes another version of the tale which provides a different reason for Chang'e ascending to the moon:
After the hero Houyi shot down nine of the ten suns, he was pronounced king by the thankful people. However, he soon became a conceited and tyrannical ruler. In order to live long without death, he asked for the elixir from Xiwangmu. But his wife, Chang'e, stole it on the fifteenth of August because she did not want the cruel king to live long and hurt more people. She took the magic potion to prevent her husband from becoming immortal. Houyi was so angry when discovered that Chang'e took the elixir, he shot at his wife as she flew toward the moon, though he missed. Chang'e fled to the moon and became the spirit of the moon. Houyi died soon because he was overcome with great anger. Thereafter, people offer a sacrifice to Chang'e on every lunar fifteenth of August to commemorate Chang'e's action.
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