[WHO? Juin Wen aka. Vabien]
[BIRTHDATE: 11 July]
[CHARACTER: Crazy, Emo, Weird, Kind, Fun Loving, Wacky, etc.]
[FAVOURITES: Eating & Drinking, Cooking, Chatting, Chilling Out with Cliques, Movies and Drama Serials, Reading, Music, Learn New Stuffs, Trying Out Adventurous and Exciting Stuffs...]
[CONTACT: style_987@hotmail.com]
Hey...back to blog...haha...today it the mid-autumn festival...so excited can't wait to see the moon...and eat the mooncakes and drink tea...the best of life, I can say...I guess it is an apropriate time to sing "Fly me to the Moon"...(read the first story below to get what I mean...)haha...yesterday did my ginger snaps at last but felt it didn't have enough ginger taste,so next time going to put more ginger in it...the pictures are in the previous entry...As promised for making my blog into a little information site on chinese festivals,below I have some origins of the mid-autumn festival...
Ok before I begin on the origins I will give you some information in a nutshell...There are actually 2 legends(I know) to this festival,but don't be mistaken there can be more...the mid-autumn festival falls on the 15th of the 8th lunar month and many chinese believe that the moon on this day(or should I say night) is the biggest,brightest and roundest compared to the rest of the other full moons in the year...It is one of the important festivals to the chinese and for more traditional families,it's a must for everyone in the family to come back for the reunion dinner...the moon is the roundest of the year so it represent the reunions of families so people from other places be it locally or overseas should be back for the dinner...if I am not wrong there is a saying that's goes like this "ri yuan yue yuan,da tuan yuan" which means the sun and moon is round and there is a big reunion...Ok enough about these before you all go "Snore-ville"...lets start on the origins...
The Origin of Moon Gazing: There was once a heavenly general, who was called Hou Yi,who hits anything on target with his magical bow and arrows. He was in love with this maiden in heaven named Chang Er and she was also in love with him. There was once tens suns, they each took their turn to shine on earth and once they rebel and appear all at the same time(talk about global warming...haha...) and the people were suffering as the water in wells and rivers have all dried up. So people could not farm or drink,as a result crops,animals and people were falling like flies. It is said that one sun bring prosperity and ten suns spells doom. Due to the righteous in Hou Yi, he decided to help the people and shoot down 9 suns even though he was defying the heaven decree. As the Jade Emperor did not want to kill them or else the earth will plunged in total darkness or having one sun means it will have to work non-stop(Imagine working at a 24-hour store without a break 24/7)or some reason or another. After shooting the 9 suns down, a messenger from heaven came to banished Hou Yi to earth to become a mortal. When he was about to be send to earth, Chang Er came to stop him but as no one could defy the Jade Emperor's orders, she decided to become mortal with him so that they can spend their life together forever. For a second reason, deities are supposedly not to fall in love or will be punished.
During the period on earth, Hou Yi was becoming famous as he was using his great archery skills to eliminate beasts that were threatening the villagers. Chang Er began to feel neglected as Hou Yi was becoming a different person: arrogant and proud and he was also going on more expeditions than before. Then, there was this chap called Feng Meng who was jealous of him and decided in order to get rid of him he had to be close to him, so he became his disciple. One day after defeating a beast in the mountain, the Queen Mother of the West gave him an elixir for his reward. (If one person eats it,the person will become immortal...if two,they will live forever) He was so happy,he went to tell Chang Er asap. After telling her the news, he went to meet Feng Meng as he wanted to present him gifts. When he came to the meeting place, Feng Meng hid in the bushes and shot him with an arrow,killing him instantly. During this time, Chang Er couldn't take it anymore and she drank the elixer, as she do not know how long could she remain with him as he was a changed person. Slowly she assended to moon(a cold,lonely and dark place)with her favourite rabbit(yu tu) where she spend eternity there and became the moon goddess,ruling the moon palace. As for Hou Yi, after he died he was resinated and for gaining much merits on earth, he was promoted to be the sun god to rule the sun palace. Thus the couple was separated and could no longer be together as the sun only comes out in the day and the moon in the night. Only during esciples, they could see each other for a while form a distance...
So every 15th of the 8th lunar month where the moon is the biggest,roundest and brightest, people will gaze at the moon thinking of Chang Er and hope to catch a glimpse of her with/without her rabbit...
(There is no such thing as sun gazing as it will spoil your eyes for sure...haha...and whatsmore the sun is always the same roundest,I think...haha...)
Here's a picture of Chang Er and her rabbit on the moon...She is said to have a radiant beauty, just like the moon on this very day...
Source: www.casacenina.com/catalog
Second Version: There was once a lady named Sixth Sister Yao, who was married to the son of the Yang family,who was still a little child due to some circumstances. The mother of the Yang family was a well known shrew. One day, she asked her daughter-in-law to weave 7 jin of cotton into cloth,if it was not done by morning she will receive a heavy beating by her. As it was impossible,her daughter-in-law tried her best to complete it all night. Out of a sudden,the oil lamp ran out of oil to provide for the fire, so she went outside and used the moonlight to guide her. It was already the fourth watch and Sixth Sister Yao was still weaving, the midst of her chore, a group of old men on a dragon boat appeared before her and told her to go and sleep but she refuse and suddenly a gust of wind came and blow all the dust into the air. When the wind had died down the men and the dragon boat was gone. As the moon was covered by the clouds,she could no longer work, she picked up her loom,cloth and the remainding cotton and went back into the house. So waited for the moon to re-appear again but as she waited longer and longer, she felt asleep.
The next morning, when her mother-in-law came in to see how much had her daughter-in-law done, she was very shocked to see that the loom was made out of gold! When asked, the daughter-in-law related the story to her. She recalled that there is a legend that is that on the 15th of the 8th lunar month, all the deities in the moon palace will leave the moon on their dragon boat to visit earth, only blessed and fortunate people will see them and whatever they first touch after the deities appearance will turn into gold. After knowing that Sixth Sister Yao was a lucky person, her mother-in-law no longer bully her,treated her nicely and even help her with the chores. So from that day forth, people will gaze at the moon on the 15th of the 8th lunar month till the fourth watch to see if they could spot the moon deities' dragon boat to receive their blessings.
I guess the deities' dragon boat will look something like that but much bigger and double storey and more beautiful...
Source: http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Tourism/Kaifeng-dragon-boat.html
The origin of mooncakes: After the fall of the Song Dynasty,the mongolians conquered and ruled China,they treated the people badly as they are afraid that they will be overthrown anytime. So the leader of the military stationed one mongolain soldier at every household to keep watch on their every move, preventing the villagers from staging any protest. So one day,the some villagers decided to met up in the forest to diverse a plan to overthrown the mongolians. It seems impossible to pass messages to each other as there was a mongolian soldier at every house but suddenly one of them came up with an idea of hiding pieces of paper in a biscuit to communicate with each other. After making the biscuits, they distribute it to the other villagers, the note reads "Kill the soldier at the third watch tonight" Thus some people add some rat poison to the biscuit and gave it to the soldier, some killing them with axes and knifes. To comerade the overthrowing of the mongolians, the chinese baked these biscuits on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. Now also known as mooncakes.
* As lengends there are many version, mine is the little of the many ones. And for the first story on moon gazing,I have combine two version that I know together...Hope you like it... :)
Traditions and Practices: Nowadays people will have reunion dinners on this day and after dinner they will go to a park or an open space to gaze at the moon. While gazing at the moon, they will consume mooncakes accompanied by chinese tea as mooncakes are heavy in taste, the tea will aid in digestion and to lighten the palate. Sometimes, pomelos(you zi) are eaten too as it has the same sounding as the 'you' in 'bao you', which means being protected. So by eating pomelos it can prevent us from any bad luck or evil spirits.While the adults sit around and chat and savour mooncakes, the children will be playing with their lantern by walking around, be it the electronic ones or the candles-litted ones. I guess it is a way showing-off one's own beautiful lanterns to the other children and I just love how it is seen from a distance in the dark.
Mooncakes are not only constricted to the normal baked and snow-skins ones. There are now tons of varieties, such as fried ones, wine ones, non-vegetarian ones, stuffed with chinese sausages, sugarless ones, multi-coloured ones, ice cream ones, yolk that are not yolks ones, the list goes on. In this present times, more and more varieties are coming up like no one business and the boxes they come in is so... WOW! the way the boxes that the mooncakes comes in are so exquitsive and creative. I have seen those that open up like a drawer to reveal the mooncakes and those that open up like a jewellery box. The designs are just countless. Everytime when going to the taka mooncakes fair, I will be very happy as you can sample the mooncakes and admire the boxes they come in too, I guess it comes as close to the image of a kid being in a candystore. Haha...
Lanterns nowadays are also not little. As a child, the trip to the shop at holland v. or beach road was always a thrilling and amazing one. There are so many types to choose from but only one is destined for us. It would be a Saturday trip to the store with my mum,sis,aunt and cousin after my sis and cousin school(the 5-day week have not been implimented). I always liked the candle-lited ones as the fun of it is that of lighting the new candles when the wax of the old ones is gone. If I am not wrong, my first ever lantern is a fish made from those cellophane paper that you see, but that year it was windy and my candle kept blowing out. One of my all time favourite and probably my sisters and cousins favourite is that of the sun and the moon made from paper. In the past, it is much larger but now it has reduced by about half.
The box containing the mooncakes...It's a HK brand,heard my mum say it is very popular in HK...
The common two types of skins for mooncakes: Snow Skin(White) & Baked(Brown)...
The snow skin is bought from bengawan solo...
The inside of the snow skin mooncake,contains 2 yolks...o btw the flavour of the skin is the banana flavour but the paste is the same...don't taste too bad...haha...
The baked one: Pure White Lotus Paste Without Yolk...
The yam paste mooncakes...To cook the skin they deep fried it...but very fattening...haha...
The mooncakes with a whole walnut in it and of course including lotus paste...
The pandan-flavoured snow skin mooncake from Jade Crystal Restaurant...
The inside contain 2 yolks...haha...
And Lastly wash down those mooncakes with a strong chinese tea...
Suggestion: "Tie Guan Yin" Tea(Iron Buddha Tea)...haha...
A Must-do on the Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Gazing!!!
Both taken from my hall window but this is without flash and slightly closer...haha...
P.S.: Eat mooncakes and sip some tea...but don't eat too much as mooncakes can add some pounds to your weight...Excercise more after this...haha... =P