Mooncake Day
A poem about traditions
Space travel?
I don’t need that.
Once a year
we pluck the moon from the skies
wrapped up like a pastry,
a bite of sweet and savoury.
Is it true how
Seung Ngo (嫦娥) the moon lady,
how her greed taught her how to fly?
How can she truly be as lonely
as the poems claim,
if the moon rabbit is there with her?
Is it true that mooncakes
helped spread word of a revolution?
I must have mixed
a thousand myths in my child brain.
Recounting the true original stories
is now a festival of lantern riddles of its own.
Time travel,
maybe that’s what I need,
to relive these traditions,
to relearn these stories.
Lucy (The Eggcademic)’s favourite Chinese holiday is probably Mid-Autumn’s Festival (中秋節), which she endearingly calls Mooncake day. This year, Mooncake day falls on October 1st. Hop down the (moon) rabbit hole into my analysis of seafood sauces that add umami into Chinese food.
