Mid-Autumn Festival

Here we are with a traditional dragon for the Mid-autumn festival!  Doesn't this look like fun?  It was great!  We had an office party to celebrate the occasion so here we are entertaining the staff.

The term "Mid-Autumn" first appeared in the book Rites of Zhou (周礼), written in the Warring States Period (475–221 BC). But the term only related to the time and season; the festival didn't exist at that point.

Appreciating the moon with family on the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD), it was popular to appreciate the moon. Many poets liked to create poems related to the moon when appreciating it. There is a legend that Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty visited the Moon Palace in his dream and heard a wonderful song.

In the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127 AD), the 15th day of the 8th lunar month was established as the "Mid-Autumn Festival". From then on, sacrificing to the moon was very popular, and has become a custom ever since.

During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD) and the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912 AD), the Mid-Autumn Festival was as popular as Chinese New Year. People promoted many different activities to celebrate it, such as burning pagodas and performing the fire dragon dance.

Worshiping the moon entailed placing a large table in the middle of the yard under the moon, and putting offerings, such as fruit and snacks, on the table.

Nowadays, many traditional activities are disappearing, but new trends have been generated. Most workers and students regard it as a public holiday to escape work and school. People go out traveling with families or friends, or watch the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala on TV at night.

Stories of 3 Origins — Sacrificing to the Moon, Parties at Night, and Eating Mooncakes

Sacrificing to the Moon — Earliest Origins of Ancient Worship

Moon worshiping

Ancient Chinese emperors worshiped the harvest moonon the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, as they believed that the practice would bring them a plentiful harvest the following year.

The custom of offering sacrifices to the moon originated from worshiping the moon goddess, and it was recorded that kings offered sacrifices to the moon in fall during the Western Zhou Dynasty (1045–770 BC).

The sacrificial offerings include apples, plums, grapes, and incense, but mooncakes and watermelons (pomelos in the south) are essential. The watermelon's (or pomelo's) skin is sometimes sliced and opened up into a lotus shape when offered as a sacrifice.

Appreciating the Moon — Harvest Moon Feasts at Night Established

Appreciating the moon has been a traditional custom since the Tang Dynasty. Not just the rich merchants and officials, but also the common citizens, began appreciating the moon together during that time.

The rich merchants and officials held big parties in their large courts. They drank and appreciated the bright moon. Music and dances were also indispensable. The common citizens just prayed to the moon for a good harvest.

Eating Mooncakes at Mid-Autumn — It Began 650 Years Ago

Mooncakes are the most important food of the Mid-Autumn Festival in China.

The tradition of eating mooncakes during the festival began in the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), a dynasty ruled by the Mongols.  

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Han people's resistance wanted to overthrow the rule of the Mongols, so they planned an uprising together. But they had no way to inform other Han people who wanted to join them of the time of the uprising without being discovered by the Mongols.

The military counselor of the Han people's resistance army, Liu Bowen, thought out a stratagem related to mooncakes. Liu Bowen asked his soldiers to write "uprising on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival" on slips of paper, put them in mooncakes, and then sell them to the other Han people.

When the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival came, a huge uprising broke out and the Han people succeeded.

From then on, people ate mooncakes every Mid-Autumn Festival to commemorate the uprising (although this is little-remembered today).

So there you have it!

Eating fruit is an important part of of the Autumn Festival. We helped cut up the fruit for our office celebration and put the little Chinese umbrellas on top.

Here's some of the senior missionaries and staff that helped cut up the fruit.

Here's how they decorated for the office party.

Here are some of the pretty moon cakes we had to eat. Yummy Mooncakes

It was interesting to see that very few of the people from the office were eating the mooncakes. So we heard a figure of something like 69% of the people like to give mooncakes and 67% don't like to eat them.  We think they like their mooncakes kind of like how much people like our Christmas fruitcake.

Here's some of the staff trying to figure out some Chinese riddles.

Here are the ones they made for the senior missionaries.  Here are the answers:
16.  lock and key, 17. Moon, 18. Your name, 19. Shadow, 20. Donkey, 21. Sandwich, 22. Hot is faster- you can catch cold, 23. 12:50 train as the odds are 10 to 1 (get it?) 24. Second hand (like second hand clothes) 25- Without "U" they are nothing. 26. shoe trees, 27. Saturday and Sunday- the rest are weak days.  28. Closer to Mom because Dad is "Father", 29. Footsteps, 30. Jokes

Here's a close-up of our dragon that we got to be a part of the dragon dance with.  The dragon is the one on the left!

So there is a good use for the little paper umbrellas. Isn't this a fun way that they have of eating the fruit?

Here is one of the mooncake boxes; isn't that pretty?  Elder Chandler liked the mooncakes but, of course, he likes everything.

 Here's Elder and Sister Chamberlain.  Elder Chamberlain couldn't get enough of the mooncakes.  He served here when he was a young missionary, too, so maybe that is why he loves them so much.

Anybody recognize these familiar people? 


Why it's Bishop Chad Kendell who dropped in to see his parents, Elder and Sister Kendell, on his way to Beijing.  It was great to see him yesterday as he is our neighbor at home and our former bishop, and it was great to go out with them after our Thursday self-reliance class to go to Big Bite to eat with them.

On the way back from the ferry we saw some of the people getting ready to celebrate.  Mid-autumn festival is a big celebration similar to how we celebrate Thanksgiving as they get together with their families for a big dinner.

This is a dark photo as it was dark outside but there were several families sitting out on the grass and eating.  Many of the apartments are too small for the families to get together so they do their celebrating out of doors.

Here's a few links if you want to see more of the real dragon festival:
mid-autumn dragon, another dragon

We were going to go out tonight and see what we could see at the festival but we were toooooo exhausted.  We had to be at the temple at 7:30 a.m. this morning to help with all the Filipino sisters who come on the national holiday where many were able to be off work today. At the temple, Elder Chandler officiated a session and Sister Chandler helped with that and with other assignments. Then we needed to take our three train rides back to the office to go to our Friday church where we are assigned and Elder Chandler conducted church.  He also taught Sunday School and afterwards he facilitated self-reliance.  We have more assignments for our Sunday church which includes Elder Chandler giving a talk in another branch and we are facilitating another self-reliance class so we are keeping busy.

 Here we are with some of our class tonight.  We had the sister of one of the new members of the church join us for church and self-reliance.  She really enjoyed her experience with us and plans to return. 

Also, today at the temple another sister from our group was able to be sealed to her parents today at the temple so it was a very special day.