The Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival where Chinese family members and friends get-together to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon. This festival is significantly important to the Chinese as it symbolizes unity, as it is an annual custom for the family members to gather and together they celebrate the festival by sharing the legends and stories that have been inherited generation by generation.
The moon cake festival comes with a few legends, among them is that the earth once had ten suns circling over it, each took its turn to illuminate to the earth. However, on one particular day all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. A strong, tyrannical young archer named Hou Yi shot down nine of the suns and save the earth. Yearning for immortality, Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However his beautiful wife Chang Er drank the elixir of life in order to save the people from her husband's tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating and flew to the moon. Hou Yi didn't shoot down the moon because he loved his divinely beautiful wife so much. Ever after, it is a tradition for the people to burn incense in reverence to deities, and that includes Chang Er
Another legend that relates with immortality is Wu Kang who was a shiftless fellow who changed apprenticeships all the time. He made up his mind one day that he wanted to be an immortal. He then went to live in the mountains where he importuned an immortal to teach him. After a few teachings and attempts, his impatience annoyed the immortal and the master banished him to the Moon Palace, telling him that he must cut down a huge cassia tree before he could return to earth. Though Wu Kang chopped day and night, the magical tree restored itself with each blow, and thus he is up there chopping still. The most interesting story for the children will The Hare-the Jade Rabbit. In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men and begged for something to eat from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the rabbit, empty-handed, offered his own flesh instead, jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself. The sages were so touched by the rabbit's sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the "Jade Rabbit."
The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as moon cake festival, naming after its delicacy, moon cake. During the Yuan dynasty (A.D.1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D.960-1280) were unhappy at submitting to foreign rule, coordinate the rebellion by ordering the making of special cakes, In which there was a message with the outline of the attack, as the Moon Festival was approaching. On the festival night, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government and establish the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644).
Today, the Chinese celebrate the moon cake festival to commemorate the legend. With moon cakes and Chinese tea, the Chinese descendants share the legends while admiring the beauty of the moon. As for the children, it is a happy festival where they can go around the town or street with their brightly lit colourful lanterns. People decorate their houses with colourful bulbs and some lit up the candles in several rows, on their gate. All these create a joyful surrounding, where family members are able to meet up with each other after some time and laughter can be heard everywhere. Thus, moon cake festival is remarkably essential for the Chinese and is pass from generation to next generation.
by
Lam Pei Shin
The Water and Moon Festival; A Cambodian celebration
The Water and Moon Festival is one of the biggest events in Cambodia. It is especially the largest festival in the Capital Phnom Penh, since a lot of people from surrounding provinces come to the capital and almost double the population there. It takes place once a year, on the full moon of the Buddhist month of Kadeuk (usually in October or November). There are loads of activities during the three-day festivals such as concerts and goods fairs. The most interesting one is the festival itself.
Boat racing is the most noticeable event in the festival. There are hundreds of boats from many villages in Cambodia (Last year there are more than 400 boats!). The boats are usually dugout canoes with a prow and stern that curve upward. They are exceptionally beautiful and are elaborately decorated and carved to represent the village. The prow is sometimes painted with a large eye like those that decorated the war vessels of ancient times. The canoes can be as long as 20 meters with as many as 60 oarsmen! During the three-day festival, boat racing usually starts at around 9 in the morning until 5 or 6 in the evening. Pairs of boats race kilometers along the Tonle Sap River in front of the Royal Palace of Cambodia. The event is so important that there are presences of Cambodian King and Queen, and VIPs. Of course there are also thousands of spectators sitting and cheering along the bank of the Tonle Sap (including me!).
Later in the evening at around 7, there is a fluvial parade. It features beautifully-illuminated boats (in Khmer we call them “Pratip”) queuing and lighting up the Tonle Sap. Usually the boats represent the symbol of governmental ministries. On the first day, the King lights up the first Pratip of the festival. Along with the parade, fireworks are displayed (I like it for sure!).
On the second day of the festival, we also celebrate the Moon salutation. Unlike Chinese Moon Festival, we do not have moon cakes. Instead we praise with bananas, coconuts, fruits and of course Cambodian special food dedicated to the event, Ambok. It is flattened rice mixed with coconut juice and banana (very delicious, miss it now). We eat it at midnight on the second day.
At night after fireworks and fluvial parade, it’s the festival-goers parade! Well, just kidding. The crowd during the festival is so huge. Usually cars are not allowed in the city and we have to walk, and that’s sometimes fun. Young men or women can go to concerts which usually last till early morning and sometimes they do not sleep! There are also goods fairs and food stands sold both underpriced and overpriced, and lucky draw and games to plays, which I rarely win (seriously).
Ah, I haven’t written about its origin yet! Cambodia has the biggest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, the Great Lake. The lake is connected to the River Mekong by the River Tonle Sap. Every year the Tonle Sap changes course twice. During the monsoon period, the Mekong swells and the excess water flows along the Tonle Sap into the Great Lake. After the period, the Mekong is back to normal size and the water from the Great Lake is drained back to the Tonle Sap, making it change it course. This unique phenomenon provides Cambodia with fishes and rich soil. The Water Festival is held to celebrate and appreciate this. We also celebrate to honour the glory of the 12th century Khmer Empire’s navy under King Jayavarman VII as depicted on the wall of the Bayon Temple.
This year the Water and Moon Festival is going to take place from 20 November to
22 November. Sadly, I’m also going to miss it for the second time.
22 November. Sadly, I’m also going to miss it for the second time.
by
Thea Sokheang
