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September 18, 2005
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
Today is the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar -- the middle of autumn. The moon is full; I'd be able to see it if it weren't so overcast. In ancient Chinese culture, circles represented reuniting with family, making Mid-Autumn Festival a little like our Thanksgiving (with a much longer history and minus the historical controversy): you get together with family if you can, and miss them if you can't. In addition to missing family and looking at the moon, Chinese eat mooncakes to celebrate. Mooncakes come in various sizes; about two inches in diameter is common. Usually they're round but they can also be square or triangular. They're filled with lots of different things: fruit flavor, bean paste, meat, pickled vegetables, preserved egg yolk. My conclusion is that they're more traditional and symbolic than they are tasty.
One of the first poems every Chinese student learns is by Li Bai (701-762 A.D.). Here's an English translation (it sounds much better in Chinese!):
Thoughts on a Still Night
Before my bed, the moon is shining bright,
I think that it is frost upon the ground.
I raise my head and look at the bright moon,
I lower my head and think of home.
There's your encyclopedia entry/cultural lesson for the day. I like Mid-Autumn Festival. I just hope I don't get too many mooncakes.
| By huzzlecoo | 07:24 PM
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Comments
So, apparently that Li Bai guy is pretty famous...and I definitely remember "translating" that poem in my traditional China class. Weird.
Posted by: Emily Weisbrook at September 25, 2005 11:28 AM
