Happy Moon Festival 中秋節快樂!

Yes, I know it’s a day or two late but we just celebrated the Harvest of the August Moon 八月, by the lunar calendar 月曆 that is. It was October 6 by the solar calendar 日曆. Traditionally, families get together from all over during this holiday, dress up and have dinner together. The roundness in the moon serves as a symbol of the wholeness of the family as it gets together. It serves a very similar function for the family that Thanksgiving 感恩節 does in American culture, as a celebration of the harvest.

In the olden days, people got together, got drunk and admired the moon while composing poetry. These days people get together, get drunk sometimes and certainly admire the moon but there isn’t as much of the composing of poetry 詩. They say the moon is at its biggest in several years this moon festival.

Of course the most visible symbol is the moon cake 月餅. They have been compared to the fruit cakes given out at Christmas but they are much much better. I can still remember the artificial neon glow fruit on top of those things…yech. My favorite moon cake is the standard red bean paste with a single salted duck egg yolk 豆沙單黃. The one in the photo here is lotus paste with egg yolk (click for larger size), but close enough. I also like durian fruit moon cakes sent by friends in Thailand and I have heard rumors of rich chocolate ones from Singapore.

Stay tuned for photos and an update of our Moon Festival weekend tomorrow.