Miscellaneous Pictures

I have seen so many different kinds of fruits since being in China.  I snapped a picture of a couple of them while I was at the store the other day.  I have tasted the prickly-looking one on the right.  It is the favorite of one of my students, and she brought me some to taste.  I must admit it is not my favorite.  Actually the other students in the class didn't like it either.  It has a very strong odor, and they all started complaining the minute they walked in the door.  I have not tried the purple fruit on the left.  I may have to buy one someday and see how it tastes.  These are only two of some very unusual fruits.  I guess it pays to have a section of your country that is in the tropical zone.

I have to pass on these pictures of a sunset.  I love looking out my windows.  I am constantly amazed at some of the things I see.  We do live in a beautiful world.

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Mid-Autumn Festival around Beijing

The actual celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival was on September 30.  But there was a great deal of preparation leading up to the celebration.  Everyone started cleaning everything: signs, walls, sidewalks, almost everything.  About one week before they added decorations and flowers to the buildings and streets.

This is in the entry way to my apartment complex.

The next two pictures are of the entry way into my building.

I have taken the rest of the pictures as I have been out and about in my area.  It is very festive and beautiful.

The Mid-Autumn has really evolved into a Thanksgiving holiday where family and friends get together to eat and enjoy the company of one another.  Friday and Saturday was very busy as everyone was shopping for food and a gift to take to the home where they would be going to celebrate the day.  It seemed like most of the gifts were nuts, candy, moon cakes, wine - things they would use at the home of the host.

I am not sure if it happens every year, but this year their National Day fell on October 1 which meant there were two official days of holiday in a row.  Many of the shops and businesses were closed.  In fact the holiday lasts until Sunday, October 7 so that people can go home to be with their extended family.  It is not a good week to travel in China because planes, trains and roads are busy with people going and coming.

On the night of the full moon, everyone gets together to eat.  I don't know if they stay up and watch for the moon to come up or not.  They eat a lot of different kinds of food, but included in the food are moon cakes.  Moon cakes have all kinds of different fillings, and for dessert they eat a sweet one.  I bought one of them so I could try it out.  It was really quite good.  None of their desserts are as sweet as in the US.  If fact the Chinese people have a hard time taking more than a couple of bites of US desserts. I ate my moon cake and Skyped with my family to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival. 

 I did not stay up to see the moon come up.  There are too many tall buildings around me. I figured I wouldn't be able to see it until two or three in the morning.  When I woke up at six, I was surprised to see the moon still showing in my bedroom window.  A great finale to a very nice holiday.

Story of the Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, usually in October in Gregorian calendar.

The festival has a long history. In ancient China, emperors followed the rite of offering sacrifices to the sun in spring and to the moon in autumn. Historical books of the Zhou Dynasty had had the word "Mid-Autumn". Later aristocrats and literary figures helped expand the ceremony to common people. They enjoyed the full, bright moon on that day, worshipped it and expressed their thoughts and feelings under it. By the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Mid-Autumn Festival had been fixed, which became even grander in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). In the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, it grew to be a major festival of China.

Folklore about the origin of the festival go like this: In remote antiquity, there were ten suns rising in the sky, which scorched all crops and drove people into dire poverty. A hero named Hou Yi was much worried about this, he ascended to the top of the Kunlun Mountain and, directing his superhuman strength to full extent, drew his extraordinary bow and shot down the nine superfluous suns one after another. He also ordered the last sun to rise and set according to time. For this reason, he was respected and loved by the people and lots of people of ideals and integrity came to him to learn martial arts from him. A person named Peng Meng lurked in them.

Hou Yi had a beautiful and kindhearted wife named Chang E. One day on his way to the Kunlun Mountain to call on friends, he ran upon the Empress of Heaven Wangmu who was passing by. Empress Wangmu presented to him a parcel of elixir, by taking which, it was said, one would ascend immediately to heaven and become a celestial being. Hou Yi, however, hated to part with his wife. So he gave the elixir to Chang E to treasure for the time being. Chang E hid the parcel in a treasure box at her dressing table when, unexpectedly, it was seen by Peng Meng.

One day when Hou Yi led his disciples to go hunting, Peng Meng, sword in hand, rushed into the inner chamber and forced Chang E to hand over the elixir. Aware that she was unable to defeat Peng Meng, Chang E made a prompt decision at that critical moment. She turned round to open her treasure box, took up the elixir and swallowed it in one gulp. As soon as she swallowed the elixir her body floated off the ground, dashed out of the window and flew towards heaven. Peng Meng escaped.

When Hou Yi returned home at dark, he knew from the maidservants what had happened. Overcome with grief, Hou Yi looked up into the night sky and called out the name of his beloved wife when, to his surprise, he found that the moon was especially clear and bight and on it there was a swaying shadow that was exactly like his wife. He tried his best to chase after the moon. But as he ran, the moon retreated; as he withdrew, the moon came back. He could not get to the moon at all.

Thinking of his wife day and night, Hou Yi then had an incense table arranged in the back garden that Chang E loved. Putting on the table sweetmeats and fresh fruits Chang E enjoyed most, Hou Yi held at a distance a memorial ceremony for Chang E who was sentimentally attached to him in the palace of the moon.

When people heard of the story that Chang E had turned into a celestial being, they arranged the incense table in the moonlight one after another and prayed kindhearted Chang E for good fortune and peace. From then on the custom of worshiping the moon spread among the people.

People in different places follow various customs, but all show their love and longing for a better life. Today people will enjoy the full moon and eat moon cakes on that day.

The moon looks extremely round, big and bright on the 15th day of each lunar month. People selected the August 15 to celebrate because it is a season when crops and fruits are all ripe and weather pleasant. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, all family members or friends meet outside, putting food on tables and looking up at the sky while talking about life. How splendid a moment it is!

This information can be found on the following site on the Internet: http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/Festivals/78311.htm