Mooncakes and Lantern Festival

Today - Lunar calendar 15 of August is Mid-Autumn Festival (this Friday 6 Oct 2006).

This festival is also known as Mooncake Festival or Lantern Festival, and is celebrated by most Chinese.

The Mid-Autumn Festival (Traditional Chinese: 中秋節, Simplified Chinese: 中秋节; pinyin: Zhōngqiūjié; Korean: Ch'usǒk or Chuseok 추석/秋夕; Vietnamese Tết Trung Thu; Taiwanese Tion Chhiu;also known as the Moon Festival, Mooncake Festival, or the August Moon Festival. In Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia, it may be referred to as the Lantern Festival, similar in name to a different festival which falls on the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year) is a popular Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty.

The joyous Mid-Autumn Festival, the third and last festival for the living, was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, around the time of the autumn equinox. Many referred to it simply as the "Fifteenth of the Eighth Moon". In the Western calendar, the day of the festival usually occurred sometime between the second week of September and the second week ofOctober.

This day was also considered a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain had been harvested by this time and food was abundant. With delinquent accounts settled prior to the festival , it was a time for relaxation and celebration. Food offerings were placed on an altar set up in the courtyard. Apples, pears, peaches, grapes, pomegranates , melons, oranges and pomelos might be seen. Special foods for the festival included moon cakes, cooked taro, edible snails from the taro patches or rice paddies cooked with sweet basil, and water caltrope, a type of water chestnut resembling black buffalo horns. Some people insisted that cooked taro be included because at the time of creation, taro was the first food discovered at night in the moonlight. Of all these foods, it could not be omitted from the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The round moon cakes, measuring about three inches in diameter and one and a half inches in thickness, resembled Western fruitcakes in taste and consistency. These cakes were made with melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats, bean paste, orange peels and lard. A golden yolk from a salted duck egg was placed at the center of each cake, and the golden brown crust was decorated with symbols of the festival. Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes were piled in a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a "complete year," that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon.

My collection of SMS messages today:

八月中秋不送礼,
发个短信祝福你,
健康快乐长伴你,
好运与你不分离,
财神已经跟随你,
财源滚滚进袋里,
好处全部送给你!
是否好过送月饼!
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秋已至,天转凉,大雁正南翔*
红花谢,寒气涨,天凉添衣裳*
秋叶落,桂花香,朋友记心上*
送如意,送吉祥,短信祝安康!中秋快乐!
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月光很美,比不上朋友的安慰;
星星很美,比不上友情的点缀;
夜空很美,比不上友谊的珍贵;
愿你的生活象十五的月亮圆圆满满，
夜夜都有好梦相陪，
天天都有快乐相随!
先祝你中秋节快乐！
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星星月亮天上挂,　
嫦娥奔月来牵挂,　
牛郎织女谈情话,　
月老红娘讲神话。　
有个可爱小猪不说话,眯着眼睛看电话。
祝您中秋节快乐。

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校长很喜欢吃月饼,
经常托他的同事"光光"帮他买,
今早;他拿出月饼请女教师吃,
还说:这是我托"光光"买的。
女教师:什么?你脱光光去买月饼!;)
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Thanks for sending.
Have a nice weekend and Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!