{"id":4091,"date":"2005-09-18T13:49:17","date_gmt":"2005-09-18T17:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2005\/09\/18\/families-and-moon-cakes-the-m"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:57:23","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:57:23","slug":"families-and-moon-cakes-the-mid-autumn-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/09\/18\/families-and-moon-cakes-the-mid-autumn-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"families and moon cakes – the Mid-Autumn Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ChinaMoonN\"<\/span> I<\/em><\/strong>f you need a good excuse for spending your Sunday with the family<\/span> (and not cranking out billable hours or hanging out at the 19th hole),<\/span> <\/span><\/span>we’ve got one for you: today is the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A <\/span>Chino-Australian law student (and fan of this website) wrote to tell<\/span> me about this lovely family-oriented celebration, which is also seen<\/span> as a harvest festival, and is known for the eating of <\/span>moon cakes<\/a>. One<\/span> description <\/span>explains<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The clear and radiant moon has been a subject of Chinese<\/span><\/span><\/span> poetry and song since ancient times. And the moonlight of<\/span><\/span><\/span> Mid-Autumn Festival brings particular warmth and ease to<\/span><\/span><\/span> the hearts of the people of China. This festival is said to have<\/span><\/span><\/span> originated from the ancient ceremony of Sacrificing to the <\/span><\/span><\/span>Moon Goddess. When that ceremony was later combined<\/span><\/span><\/span> with the <\/span>Legend of Eating Mooncakes<\/span><\/a>, Mid-Autumn Festival<\/span><\/span><\/span> grew in the popular consciousness to become the major<\/span><\/span><\/span> occasion that it is today.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n <\/span><\/span>
\n\"MAFfamily\"<\/span><\/span><\/span> “When the moon is full, mankind is one” — In China, the full <\/span><\/span><\/span>moon has always represented the gatherings of friends and<\/span><\/span><\/span> family. Thus, Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunions.<\/span><\/span><\/span> On this night, families will go together to scenic spots and parks<\/span><\/span><\/span> for moon appreciation parties, eating mooncakes and <\/span>pomeloes<\/span><\/span><\/span> in the cool night air and praying for a safe year.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

History buffs will enjoy the mooncake legend<\/a> and its mythic part in helping with the revolt of the Han people against the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yesterday afternoon, I went shopping for moon cakes and I had my very first<\/span> one <\/span>last night (actually, an entire 4000-calorie package of them). I saved<\/span> a package to share with haijin Yu Chan and John Stevenson — who are going<\/span> to let me <\/span>instruct them on playing bocce<\/a> this afternoon. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" Here are three poems from Yu that set the tone for the Mid-Autumn<\/span> Festival:<\/span><\/p>\n

cutting the moon cake
\njust like my mother
\nMid Autumn Festival<\/p>\n

overseas phone call
\nwe talk about
\nthe moon<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

full moon time to go home<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

………………………………… by yu chang<\/a>
\n“cutting the moon cake” – Upstate Dim Sum 2002\/I
\n“overseas phone call” – Upstate Dim Sum 2004\/I
\n‘full moon’ – Upstate Dim Sum 2001\/II<\/p>\n

follow-up<\/em><\/strong>:\u00a0 See our 2007 Mid-Autumn Festival posting;<\/a>and here<\/a>, too, with links to our Harvest Moon haiku collections.<\/p>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

city street corner –<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nthe cricket, and I<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nand the harvest moon<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

………………………………….. by <\/em><\/span>dagosan<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/a> [Sept. 18, 2005] <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\"ChinaMoonG\"<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you need a good excuse for spending your Sunday with the family (and not cranking out billable hours or hanging out at the 19th hole), we’ve got one for you: today is the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. A Chino-Australian law student (and fan of this website) wrote to tell me about this lovely family-oriented celebration, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-13Z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4091"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13025,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091\/revisions\/13025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}