The Moon Cake Festival–A Time to Gaze at That Woman in The MoonPrepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International
In the West they call him “the man in the moon.” In the East, on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, people can gaze on “the woman in the moon.” It’s part of a grand festival called the Moon Cake Festival, and it’s celebrated throughout Asia from Singapore to Japan. Thailand is included.
What it really means is that it’s China’s harvest festival, an occasion to scoff down sweet treats called moon cakes. The cakes, made of a thin dough shell containing fillings such as jelly, dates and nuts or red bean paste, started appearing everywhere around Asia about a month ago.
In China this is their more important festival at the end of Chinese New Year. The tradition in Chinese culture is about observing the transition of the seasons. In Japan, where it’s strictly a moon festival, faces turn to the night sky, when the Japanese even climb onto rooftops to get closer to the moon. It’s the time for dragon dances when people carry lanterns and hang them from towers. Incense is burnt for the lunar goddess Chang’e, who, they believe, lives on the moon with a jade rabbit.
The tale of the goddess involves Houyi, the Archer and famous builder. The story told is that Houyi built a beautiful jade palace for the Goddess of the Western Heaven (also called the Royal Mother). In appreciation, she gave Yi a special pill that contained the magic elixir of immortality. But with it, came the condition and warning that he may not use the pill until he had accomplished certain self-purification.
But Houyi’s wife, Goddess Chang’e, was a beautiful but inquisitive woman. One day, she discovered the pill and, without telling her husband, swallowed it. The Goddess of the Western Heaven became very angry and, as a punishment, banished Chang'e to the moon where, according to the legend, she can be seen at her most beautiful on the night of the bright harvest moon. Thus, the holiday is always celebrated during the time when the moon is at its fullest. Children gather around, climbing hills and mountains to be able to see the moon so their wish can be granted. Shops selling moon cakes, before the festival, often display pictures of Chang'e floating to the moon.
The Moon Cake Festival dates back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival. The date, the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the moon cake of which there are many different varieties.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together.
Foreign travellers who are visiting Asian countries might be perplexed by some of the customs they see. Accompanying the celebration, there are customs such as eating moon cakes outside under the moon, putting pomelo rinds on one's head, carrying brightly lit lanterns, burning incense in reverence to deities and collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members.
There are six variations and adaptations of the Chang'e legend and it’s easy to become overwhelmed and utterly confused. However, most legends about Chang'e in Chinese mythology involve some variation of the following elements: Houyi, the Archer; Chang'e, the mythical Moon Goddess of Immortality; an emperor, either benevolent or malevolent; an elixir of life; and the Moon. In all versions the earth has ten suns and it is Houyi the archer who becomes the hero and shoots nine of them down, making the earth habitable again. All the stories take place around 2170 BC.
The Jade Rabbit also plays an important role in the Moon Cake Festival. According to tradition, Jade Rabbit is a shape, assumed by Chang'e herself. They say the dark areas at the top of the full moon may be construed to be the figure of a rabbit. The animal's ears point to the upper right, while at the left are two large circular areas, representing its head and body.
In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men and begged for food from a fox, a monkey, and a hare. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the hare, empty-handed, jumped into a blazing fire to offer his own flesh instead. The sages were so touched by the hare's sacrifice and act of kindness that they let him live in the Moon Palace, where he became the "Jade Rabbit".
It’s interesting to note that sometimes legend becomes reality, as in the case where it is said that the Moon Cake Festival is in part responsible for the overthrow of Mongol rule. Accordingly, the festival commemorates an uprising in China against the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty (1280–1368) in the 14th century. At the time, group gatherings were banned and it was impossible to make plans for a rebellion. Noting that the Mongols did not eat moon cakes, our hero, Liu Bowen of Zhejiang Province, advisor to the Chinese rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang, came up with the idea of timing the rebellion to coincide with the Moon Cake Festival. He sought permission to distribute thousands of moon cakes to the Chinese residents in the city to bless the longevity of the Mongol emperor. Inside each cake, however, was inserted a piece of paper with the message: "Kill the Mongols on the 15th day of the 8th Moon.” On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), under Zhu. Henceforth, in China the Mid-Autumn or Moon Cake Festival is celebrated with moon cakes on a national level.
Many of the hotels around Thailand are celebrating the Moon Cake Festival by offering moon cakes for sale in the outlets. The Oriental Hotel in Bangkok is one.
Next week I will tell readers how they can get a traditional Thai massage at Wat Po.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q. Dear Mr. Stephens. For more than a year now my husband and I have been planning to visit Myanmar. Can you tell me if it is safe for foreigners to travel there now? Thank you. Helen Slimick, Key West, Florida
A. Dear Mrs. Slimick, Bear with me and I will be able to give you a full report in two weeks time. As you are reading this, I will be in Myanmar. –HS
Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)
Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited. | 
