Mid-Autumn Festival -- Sept. 25

One week from today, on Tuesday, September 25, remember the moon. For the upcoming holiday, called Tet Trung Thu in Vietnamese (Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival in English) the moon will be at its biggest and brightest this year.

That night, you may be inspired to croon like Dean Martin, “When the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.” For many Vietnamese people, that glorious moon won’t signal a cheesy pizza, but rather a moon cake – an ancient sweet of Chinese origin that goes back to the Yuan Dynasty (1280 AD-1368 AD). We savor tiny wedges of moon cake with fragrant tea as we gaze at the moon, thinking of family, friends, and the blessings we’ve had throughout the year. The roundness of the moon also embodies unity, harmony and family so this is a holiday of reflection.

The annual celebration occurs on the 15^th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar (usually in mid to late September every year). It began during the Xia and Shang Dynasties (2000 BCE-1066 BCE) in China as an agricultural harvest holiday. Vietam, heavily influenced by Chinese culture (they were there for a good 1,000 years), celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival too. Among all the Viet celebrations, Tet Trung Thu (pronounced “teht troong too”) is second to Tet Nguyen Dan (Lunar New Year) in terms of importance.   

Children, Lanterns and Legends

As a harvest festival, the holiday typically occurs after the field work has been done and all that’s left to do is harvest the rice. It’s a moment of rest for hardworking farmers and peasants, who take  pause to lavish attention on their children. In the past, during the growing season, adults were intensely laboring in the fields and their children were left to fend for themselves. At this time of the year, the focus turns to the kids and parents spend their respite having fun with their families and friends.   

Echoing the glow of the moon, tons of lanterns are present during the holiday. Children traditionally parade and dance on the streets all the while carrying colorfully lit lanterns. I have fond memories of stretching over the balcony railing of our home in Saigon to watch the lanterns pass by. They were made of cellophane glued on bamboo frames. Lit inside with a candle, they often caught on fire and we’d stare and laugh in shock and amazement at their fleeting beauty. It was a frequent holiday hazard that permanently put the smell of burning cellophane in my olfactory database.

Hoi An, a quaint tourist town in central Vietnam puts out huge displays of silk lanterns during this holiday. They're conveniently lit by electricity, which makes me miss the adventure of the old ones. (Note that in Malaysia and Singapore, this holiday is called the Lantern Festival.)

There are also many legends that are dragged out and retold. The Chinese have the story of Chang Er, a woman who took the immortal pill and became so lightweight that she floated to the moon. My favorite is a Vietnamese story about a man named Chu Cuoi who discovered a magic banyan tree whose leaves possessed healing powers. He uprooted the tree and planted it in his yard. When he tried to harvest leaves from the tree, the tree uprooted itself. As the banyan lifted off the ground, Chu Cuoi grabbed onto the roots and went upward with the tree, eventually landing on the moon. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, people try to make out the shadow of Chu Cuoi and the magic banyan tree.

In a different telling of the story, Chu Cuoi sought to protect the sanctity of the healing tree by forbidding anyone from urinating at the foot of the tree. His wife, Chi Hang, forgot his rule and did her business at the tree. It uprooted and she hung on for dear life, only to end up on the moon as her punishment for desecrating the magic tree.

Legends are never neat and tidy. Nevertheless, it’s good to note that across cultures, we’re all looking for that man or woman in the moon. Next Tuesday is a perfect opportunity to do so.

Related links:

For more on the children's focus of this holiday, check out these Youtube videos:

• Lantern dance (From Vietnam, note the popular star lanterns)
• Chu Cuoi story (From Vietnam, kitschy set)
• Little Saigon TV coverage of 2006 Tet Trung Thu show for kids

Other info:

• Detailed retelling of Chu Cuoi children's story (non-urination version
• Mid-Autumn Festival history and background (lots of Chinese information)
• Lantern popularity for 2005 Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam

Comments

[Joel]

Hi Andrea, just like you, we of Chinese backgrounds are also busy buying mooncakes. I notice that here in Christchurch, we have one Chinese grocery store whose owner is Vietnamese Chinese. She has some fashionable mooncakes like "ice-crust mooncake" which is essentially served chilled and the "crust" made with sticky rice flour rather than the regular baked type. This is the type that came on the scene in Hong Kong after I came to New Zealand in the early 1990s.

Also, a nice mooncake recipe in your book! I remember that mooncakes are quite specialized type of food and I had only seen one specialist cookbook in Chinese that talks about recipes of festive dim sums/snacks including mooncakes. I could always be an armchair mooncake baker!

[Rosa]

I love mooncakes and would love to make my own, but without any moulds it is very difficult!... Have a nice Tet!

Cheers,

Rosa

[Andrea Nguyen]

Joel, we got the idea from the Chinese!!! Yes, I've heard of the nouveau moon cakes and tried a green tea one a few years ago. It wasn't spectacular. The moon cake recipe in my book is quite nice. It's different from the other fillings, though you could certainly use the same dough and instructions but just swap out the filling.

And Rosa, you can buy moon cake molds from this San Francisco vendor:

http://www.wokshop.com/HTML/products/hard_to_find/hard_to_find_mooncake.html

They're very pretty.

[Joel]

Thanks Andrea and just like you, I can't stand the "ice-crust" type of mooncakes but I think people of my age in HK love it. It is always good to stick to the traditional like double egg yolk with white lotus seed paste or red bean paste LOL.

I notice your recipe is similar to what in HK would be called Assorted Nuts or "Ng Yan" in Cantonese. It is loved by people who grew up in the 1950s and 60s like my parents. HK's Wing Wah sells a box set of 4 for HK$248 (US$31).

[PeachyMango]

Thanks for posting this interesting article. I was born in the US and we always ate mooncakes at home every year but I never knew about all the legends associated with the Lunar New Year. I've always wanted to try and make my own mooncakes but it seems like so much work!

[Andrea Nguyen]

You're welcome. Moon cakes require a certain amount of precision and then when you whack on the cakes, that's where the finesse comes in. But, there are ways to do what my mom calls "cosmetic surgery" as you go along!

[Simon]

Andrea, I came across this today, an article about Malaysians of Chinese ancestry celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival. It includes another story about a married couple and the moon... Here's an excerpt:

"The first one is about a very hot-tempered but capable hunter who lived with his wife, Chang Er.

"She was known to be very beautiful and kind-hearted. It is believed that during that time there were 10 suns in the sky. This made the weather extremely hot.

"One day, the hunter shot down nine suns. Because of this, the Heavenly God rewarded him with a longevity pill."

Chia said Chang Er, upon learning that her bad-tempered husband was going to live forever, decided to swallow the pill instead, because she knew her husband would be a nuisance to the people.

"Soon after this, she felt very light and began floating until she reached the moon. All the villagers witnessed this, including her husband.

"They knew Chang Er had taken the pill for their sake. So to remember her sacrifice and show gratitude, they prayed to her during the festival," she said, adding that the picture of the moon and a traditionally-dressed woman, commonly found on mooncake boxes or bags, represented Chang Er.

Full article at: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/National/20070925075440/Article/index_html

[Andrea Nguyen]

How sweet and normal, Simon. There are so many versions of the Chang Er story. Sometimes she's a bitter immortal who regains her immortality by swallowing the pill. Another time she's a poor girl working in the Jade Emperor's palace in heaven. Then there's one where she lands on the moon and there's a rabbit up there. Makes me wonder if all the gazing at tonight's brilliant moon is an effort to make out how the craters come together to create a profile of someone or something.

It's beautiful this evening and I'll take another look...