Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Yesterday was Mid-Autumn Festival, a national Chinese holiday. I asked some of my students to explain the significance of the holiday to me. I attempt to summarize what they told me below:

In the early days of China's 5000 year history, the Earth had ten suns. This made the planet much hotter and caused the Chinese people much suffering. One day a hero by the name of Houyi used a bow and arrow to shoot nine of the suns out of the sky. Having made the Earth a much more tolerable place, he turned his efforts to making a potion of immortality. His wife Chang'e took the potion and drank it. Upon becoming immortal, Chang'e flew away to the Moon where she still resides today. The people were saddened over her departure and eat Mooncakes in her memory.

I have since discovered many versions of the Mid-Autumn Festival Story. They are as diverse as China is big, and are often contradictory of one another. The only thing they have in common is they conclude with the Chinese celebrating by eating Mooncakes.

Mooncakes I bought to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival.

The holiday is to be spent among family and friends. Many of the students at Siyuan University are from other provinces, so they went home to visit their families. I spent most of the day wondering around the city with some of my fellow foreign educators. We opted for an unorthodox celebration of the holiday over BBQ at a very nice Korean restaurant.

We passed the Big Wild Goose Pagoda on our way to into the City.

View of the South Gate as we left the City.

When we got back to Siyuan we stubbled upon the University's celebration of the holiday.

Stage set up in front of main academic building.

Somewhere in the blinding light on the stage are performers doing what appeared to be Chinese opera

The crowd of onlookers

I see these red and white uniforms everywhere. I've yet to discover their meaning.

Mid-Autumn Festival is always celebrated on a full moon, seen here obscured by clouds.

MOONCAKES

Mooncakes are small round pastries with raised designs on top and a filling inside. They come in a variety of flavors ranging from nuts and fruits to meat and eggs. My favorite thus far has been hami mellon, but I've also tried lotus paste, peanut, albacore tuna, and duck egg. They are all sweet, even the meats.

The typical Mooncake

The Mooncake's resemblance to the Moon becomes obvious when you leave the flash on.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a gift giving holiday. However, the only gift to give on this holiday is the Mooncake. They run from 3 Yuan on the low end to way to much for a desert on the high end. I was sad that the only Mooncakes I had on the holiday were the one's I bought myself. I felt better today in class when I was gifted Mooncakes by many of my students. Below are the three fanciest one's I received.

This Mooncake is four time the size of any other I've seen. Also the only one in a tin.

Tuna

This is the more traditional set of Mooncakes