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Misc » A Silent Moon Festival
After a whirlwind of the Sinlaku typhoon chaos, it occurred to me that the Mid-Autumn Festival (aka Moon Festival) had silently slipped by over the weekend as a result. Often considered to be the second most important festival after Chinese New Year, it’s a bit strange to see it pass by without the usual activities and celebrations. I suppose it can’t be helped, seeing how the festival fell smack in the middle of a rather large typhoon this year. Still, this is the first time I didn’t see crowds of people barbecuing out on the streets since moving here 5 years ago. Instead, all we had was a whole lot of rain and wind as Sinlaku continued to churn away.
In the past, when the Mid-Autumn Festival rolled around on lunar calendar August 15th, you’d be able to see all sorts of people having a barbecue feast right out on the sidewalks, alleys, rooftops, balconies, and even storefronts! It’s especially amusing to walk into a shop and see the sales people alternating between attending to their customers and flipping a piece of meat on the grill. But it’s all standard fare here, and this is the only time where employees are allowed a feast of their own while working.
They say the reasoning behind barbecuing out in the open is so that people can admire the beauty of the full moon, but I always find it a tad ironic seeing how everyone’s so busy grilling and eating that they often forget to look up. It’s traditional, at the very least, for friends and families to gather together for a celebration though. So while the magnificent moon may be hidden this year, many still attempt to celebrate it somehow. If the smell wafting through the windy air is any indication, there are people who even barbecue inside their houses!
In truth, barbecuing is more of a new tradition. It used to be, as I remember it, that people mainly just ate mooncakes and pomelo… perhaps retell the legend of Chang Er, who is often referred to as the Moon Goddess. Burning incense for various deities is also another old custom. All in all, it’s supposed to be a warm gathering, and some time during the night, you’d surely see a child or two run around wearing pomelo rinds like a cap.
Regardless of how people choose to celebrate the Mid-Autum Festival these days, it’s a shame many events and plans were canceled due to the bad weather. Yet it kind of reminds me of the time when many traditional Chinese elders were aghast at the idea of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon. For years after that, whenever it rained, you’d hear some people saying that he had made Chang Er cry by landing and staking the flag on her territory. If that’s the case, she must be crying especially hard this year…
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