The Mid-Autumn Festival
A Time of Eternal Love and Celebration
Culture | Mitchel Rey
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Mooncake Festival or the Moon Festival, is an auspicious day of celebration within the Chinese-Filipino community. Every year, it falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, when the moon is said to be at its roundest and brightest. In 2022, this event of joyous reunions and delicious lauriat-style meals is celebrated on September 10.
The Moon Myth: Houyi and Chang’e
One of the legends associated with the Moon Festival is that of Houyi and his wife, Chang’e. It is said that in ancient times, there were ten suns that blazed brightly in the sky. So intense was the combined heat from these suns that a terrible drought ravaged the land. To put an end to the people’s suffering, the Emperor of Heaven commanded Houyi, the god of archery, to shoot down nine of the ten suns with his bow and arrow. Houyi faithfully followed this command and was rewarded with two elixirs of immortality for his accomplishment.
Houyi meant to share these elixirs with his beautiful and kind-hearted wife, Chang’e; however, a wicked man named Feng Meng learned of the elixirs’ existence and sought them for himself. One day, while Houyi was out hunting, Feng Meng broke into their home and demanded the elixirs from Chang’e. Out of fear and desperation, the defenseless Chang’e chose to drink the elixirs by herself and thus ascended to heaven on her own.
Upon returning home, the devastated Houyi prepared an offering of his wife’s favorite food as a way to commemorate her memory. That night, as he gazed upon the full moon, he caught a glimpse of her likeness. It turns out that Chang’e, not wanting to leave her husband entirely alone, chose to take up residence on the moon so that she could stay close to her beloved.
This is only one of the many versions of the moon myth that is typically taught in schools as part of the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration; other retellings include different explanations as to why Chang’e ascended to the moon.
Luck, Love, and Lauriat-style meals in Mid-Autumn Festival
Two more contemporary traditions include getting together with friends and family to share food and to play a Chinese dice game known in Hokkien as pua tiong chiu.
The food that is most commonly associated with this festival is, of course, the mooncake with its enticingly intricate patterns. This delicious delicacy is filled with a sweet red bean, sesame, or lotus seed paste which is complemented by the saltiness of a duck egg yolk (or two). Pinoy-flavored variants such as pandan, ube, mango, and durian can also be found in shops such as Eng Bee Tin. This dense pastry is best enjoyed with a cup of hot tea and the company of your loved ones.
No modern celebration is truly complete without an exciting round of the dice game. 63 prizes are prepared and divided into six categories of increasing rank. These prizes typically consist of snacks, office supplies, and even money. Players take turns throwing six dice into a ceramic bowl; as they listen to the cacophonous clink of the dice, they wait with bated breath and hope for that lucky combination of four-fours that will win them the grand prize of the game — the chiong wan. The author of this article was a proud 5-year streak winner of this coveted position, and one of her prizes in the past years was a tower fan.
Despite how competitive the dice games can get, the spirit of the Mid-Autumn Festival truly is about coming together with family and friends as a fun bonding initiative. May this year’s celebration be an event of merriment and prosperity!
References
LTL Team HQ. (2021). Chang’e (嫦娥) flies from the moon to the screen. Retrieved from https://ltl-xian.com/chang-e/
