Mid-Autumn Moon Festival Part II Mooncakes, too many questions, & Chinese Culture

How much Chinese Culture do you plan to share with your child? When I think of my background, I see myself as an American first. Of course, I treasure my ethnic and cultural background.

How will I see my daughter/son? Obviously, I will see her/him as my daughter/son first:)

But what about her/his birth country?

How will I incorporate Chinese Culture?

How much will I incorporate?

I enjoy experiencing different cultures but this is different. We are bringing our child here from another country. I recognize that I have to find a way to make that fact an important part of my child's life.

The question is how important?

This past Saturday we attended a FCC Waiting Families Meeting. One family recently returned from China with their fifth child. This family chose to bring their oldest daughter (10 years old) back to China with them. Their daughter had the opportunity to visit the orphanage she stayed in as it was the same orphanage her baby brother was from. From a ten-year old's viewpoint is was really "cool".

But is it enough?

How do you incorporate all the important aspects of your child's birth country without confusing your child, overwhelming him or her?

I don't have the answer but it is definitely something I am thinking about. As I continue to learn more about my child's birth country, culture, and history, I find myself asking these questions. I wonder how many adoptive parents have asked themselves these same questions or are they just waiting for it to happen on its own.

Enough of this way to deep introspection!


Here is Part II of my learning quest into the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Thanks to the Internet all you gotta do is copy, cut & paste!


Also known as the "Full Moon Festival," the Mid-Autumn festival falls on the fifteen day of the eighth lunar month. At this time, the moon's orbit is at its lowest angle to the horizon, making the moon appear brighter and larger than any other time of the year. In the Western tradition, it is also called the Hunter's Moon or Harvest Moon. According to the lunar calendar, it is also the exact middle of autumn (which begins in the seventh month and ends in the ninth).

To the Chinese, this festival is similar to the American Thanksgiving holiday, celebrating a bountiful harvest. Compared to many Chinese festivals that are inundated with vibrant colors and sounds, the Mid-Autumn festival remains more subdued. Traditionally celebrated outdoors under the moonlight, people eat moon cakes and gaze at the moon. In modern times, barbecues with families and friends are also common.

Mooncakes

The ubiquitous fare at any Chinese celebration of the Full Moon festival, mooncakes are a flaked pastry stuffed with a wide variety of fillings. Egg Yolk, lotus seed paste, red bean paste, and coconut are common, but walnuts, dates, and other fillings can be found as well. Most have characters for longevity or harmony inscribed on the top. Special cakes can reach almost one foot in diameter

Mooncakes symbolize the gathering of friends and family and are an indispensable part of the offerings made to the Earth God, Tu Ti Kung. According to popular belief, the custom of eating mooncakes began in the late Yuan dynasty. As the story goes, the Han people of that time resented the Mongol rule of the Yuan Dynasty and revolutionaries, led by Chu Yuan-chang, plotted to usurp the throne. Chu needed to find a way of uniting the people to revolt on the same day without letting the Mongol rulers learn of the plan. Chu's close advisor, Liu Po-wen, finally came up with a brilliant idea. A rumor was spread that a plague was ravaging the land and that only by eating a special mooncake distributed by the revolutionaries could the disaster be prevented. The mooncakes were then distributed only to the Han people, who found, upon cutting the cakes open, the message "Revolt on the fifteenth of the eighth moon." Thus informed, the people rose together on the designated day to overthrow the Yuan, and since that time mooncakes have become an integral part of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Copyright ©2000 by The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco.