Gazing at the Moon

Gazing at the Moon is an ancient tradition from the Zhou Dynasty (around 500 BC) when people held ceremonies to welcome the full moon, with huge outdoor feasts of moon cakes, watermelons, apricots, apples, grapes and other fresh fruits. The popularity of this ancient tradition began to grow during the Tang and Song Dynasties when people of high rank held banquets in their big courtyards.

They drank fine wine, watched the moon and listened to music. Common people who could not afforded as big parties as the rich would lay some food such as moon cakes and fruits on a table in the courtyard and pray to the moon for a good harvest. This underwent a great rise during the Song Dynasty, and historical documents tell about mid-autumn night in the capital, where people would stream to the night markets and together with their families admire the beauty of the full moon. There are also many classic songs and well-known verses about this tradition.

Eating Moon Cake

Eating moon cakes while watching the full moon is an important part of the mid-autumn festival in China, and is more like a symbol of family unity. At the very beginning, the moon cakes were served as a sacrifice to the Moon. The words moon cake first appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty, even though, at that time, the moon cakes were not round. Nowadays, moon cakes are given as presents to loved ones and it represent people’s wishes to be together during the mid-autumn festival.

Apart from these two traditional customs, different regions have their own celebrations.

In Fujian Province

In Pu City, females must cross the Nanpu Bridge to pray for a long life. In Jianning, people light lanterns to pray to the moon for their babies. In Shanghang county, children have to get down on their knees when they worship the moon. In Long Yan, while eating moon cakes, parents will dig a small hole in the center of the cakes, which means that some secrets should be kept from children.

In Guangdong Province

In Chaoshan, women and children will worship the Moon. When the night comes, they will burn joss sticks in front of a table of fresh fruits as a sacrifice. At that night they will also eat taros. There are two reasons why people there eat this vegetable. One is that August is the best time to eat ripe taros, and the other comes from a story. In 1279 the Mongols defeated the Southern Song Dynasty and formed the Yuan Dynasty, and they carried out their cruel domination over the Han Chinese. At that time, a well-known general called Ma Fa held out in Chaozhou to fight with Mongols. When he failed, most citizens were killed. Because the Chinese word for taros and Mongols were similar, from then on people eat taros to prove that they will always remember the pain. To eat the taro means to eat the heads of the Mongols.

In the south of Yangtze River valley

In Nanjing people will not just eat moon cakes, they will also eat another famous dish called Guihua Dark. This dish could only be cooked during the Mid-Autumn Day, because it is cooked with osmanthus flowers, which blossoms in August.