mid autumn festival

Our wedding also falls on a very auspicious time, the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is one of the major holidays in the Chinese calendar. The holiday is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon (lunar month) of the Chinese calendar. This usually falls around the same time as the autumn equinox. Mid Autumn Festival is believed to be the day that the moon is as its largest and brightest.

The most famous legend behind this holiday concerns its role in Chinese history. According to popular belief, the custom of eating mooncakes began in the late Yuan dynasty in the 14th century. As the story goes, the Han people of that time resented the Mongol rule of the Yuan Dynasty. The revolutionaries, led by Chu Yuan-chang, plotted to usurp the throne. Chu needed to find a way of uniting the people to revolt on the same day without letting the Mongol rulers learn of the plan. Chu's close advisor, Liu Po-wen, finally came up with a brilliant idea. A rumor was spread that a plague was ravaging the land and that only by eating a special mooncake distributed by the revolutionaries could the disaster be prevented. The mooncakes were then distributed only to the Han people, who found, upon cutting the cakes open, the message "Revolt on the fifteenth of the eighth moon." Thus informed, the people rose together on the designated day to overthrow the Yuan, and since that time mooncakes have become an integral part of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Today, Mid-Autumn Festival is also a time where families and friends will come together and enjoy the full moon. The round shape of the moon symbolizes unity and closeness. Chinese people also celebrate the festival with dances and festivals. Oh, and eating lots of mooncake, too! What are mooncakes? Mooncakes are flaked pastry filled with lotus seed paste. Most have a whole egg yolk in the middle, to symbolize the moon, but Linda thinks the yolk is an acquired taste! Mooncakes are very sweet and rich, but extremely fatty.....yum.....:) Other food that is eaten also includes starfruit and pomelos (grapefruit).

In fact, it was just coincidence that we picked October 7th to be our wedding date! We liked this date because it fell on Columbus Day weekend, but then we found out that it also Mid-Autumn festival, we were even happier! Whereas many American weddings occur in June, many Chinese weddings occur in the 8th month, with the 15th day being most popular. (Since Linda's superstitious, she also had to consult the Chinese calendar to make sure it was a lucky day!)

For more information about Mid Autumn Festival, please see these links:

update 01/28/2006

winnie sent me this great article from the new york times about how this year is considered very lucky because of the two springs, or lichun, in the Year of the Dog. The double spring is like a leap year in the Chinese calendar, and is considered lucky for young couples to marry. In case the nytimes article gets archived, you can read this article or this one.

In the coming year of the dog, the lunar cycle begins relatively early and will last for 385 days until Feb. 17, 2007 --a phenomenon that has occurred only 12 times in more than 2,300 years between 221 B.C. and 2100. The last 385-day lunar year was 1944.

As the year is unusually long, it will have 13 months, with an intercalary month between the seventh and eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, as well as two "lichun" -- the auspicious day marking the beginning of spring -- on Feb. 4 of 2006 and 2007 respectively.