China articles - Chinese culture blog

mong all those memories from my traveling last year, I will never forget one night in Stockholm when I saw the moon gradually rising from the Baltic sea. I was with my Erasmus friends and everyone was speechless about the scene. I was particularly excited, because as a Chinese, I was told many stories about the moon when I was a little girl. And that was the biggest moon that I have ever seen. This year, I am even happier as I finally came back to China for the Mid-Autumn Day after years of living abroad.

There are many stories about the moon in traditional Chinese folklore and mythologies.  Zhong Qiu Jie（中秋节), or the Mid-autumn Day is the second largest festival in China. It falls on the 15th day of eighth month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, and this year the festival will be on the October 3rd.

On the night of the Mid-autumn Day, usually a full moon can be seen against the backdrop of the dark sky. It’s one of the more romantic festivals in Chinese cultural tradition. The full-moon symbolizes completeness and also represents reunion. Hence the festival is also called the festival of reunion in China. There’s a famous poem that says, "the bright moon rises above the sea; the entire world enjoys its bright beam (海上生明月，天涯共此时)." On this day, Chinese people from all over the world celebrate the festival by enjoying the full moon, lighting up lanterns and eating moon-cakes.

The moon-cake, as its name indicates, is a round shaped cake which also symbolizes reunion. It is usually for sale before the Mid-autumn Day in China. There are more than ten styles of moon cakes in different regions of China, with some sweet flavors (such as red bean paste) and some salted flavors (such as salted duck egg yolk). However, there have been variations on the different flavors of moon-cakes, with even more “international” tastes. For instance, this year I received special flavored moon-cakes as gifts -- coffee latte moon-cake and ice-cream moon-cake (which is actually ice cream with a pastry which looks like the moon-cake). It’s said that there is also moon-cake-shaped jewelery, which is, of course, not for eating.

Did you know… ?

According to a Chinese legend, there is a palace on the moon, called “Guang Han Gong”. Chang’e, a beautiful woman on earth, ate a pill which could make one immortal, and flew to the moon. She became the goddess of the moon and lives on the moon with her jade rabbit under a sweet osmanthus tree.

Osmanthus fragrans (Sweet Osmanthus) or “Gui Hua” in Chinese, is a typical flower that can only be found in China and some east-Asian countries. For instance , in the city of Nanjing, a Sweet Osmanthus Flower Festival is held on each September at the Ling Gu Temple’s sweet osmanthus garden. When the “golden autumn” comes to the city, it is the best season of the year. The weather is soft and warm, colorful leaves grow on the trees and sweet osmanthus are blooming.