Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Full Moon Festival, has long been one of the most important occasion in the Chinese society. In Hong Kong, it's the same - somewhat because of the incidental public holiday.
This joyful occasion falls on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Lunar Calendar. The moon is to the fullest on this day. In the past, people celebrated the summer's harvest with family and relatives under the moonlight. Like any other festivals, Mid-Autumn festival is full of legends in various versions. The one about the couple Houyi and Chang'e is best known -
Once upon a time, there were 10 suns took turns to bless the earth. One day, the 10 suns came up together, causing aridity. Houyi, the famous archer, was commissioned by the Emperor to kill all but one of the sun. With his extraordinary archery skills, Houyi completed the task and was rewarded with a pill, the elixir of life. One should fast for a year before taking the pill, or side effect would appear. However, Chang'e, Houyi's wife, accidentally took the pill. She floated into the sky until landing on the Moon. Since then, she had lived on the Moon.
People nowadays may forget to raise their head and trace the goddess on the Moon, but would never miss tasting the mooncakes and fleshy fruits, especially pomelos and starfruits.
Mooncake is the traditional food for Mid-Autumn Festival. In the past, people gave mooncakes, which symbolize blissfulness and longevity, to relatives as gifts on this special occasion. This custom now becomes less common in private circles, but remains popular in the business world, where people send fruit baskets along with boxes of mooncakes to business partners and clients.
Traditional mooncakes are made of thick lotus seed paste and salted egg yolks. They are sort of oily and heavy. It therefore makes room for the modern mooncakes. Bakeries are now selling "snow-skin mooncakes". They are actually dessert with a white glutinous rice crust and fillings of different flavors, ranging from the more popular green bean, red bean, chestnut to the more "innovative" tiramisu, rose and DURIAN. In recently years, even Haagen Dazs and Godiva have entered the market with their ice-cream and chocolate mooncakes.
Lantern is another feature of the Festival. Traditionally, kids carry candle-lit paper lanterns, in shapes of fruits and animals, when their families are enjoying the mooncakes and fruits under the moonlight. But in recent years, traditional lanterns have been gradually replaced by the electric and plastic ones, mostly in forms of cartoon characters. Strangely enough, some people even use luminous tubes as a substitute.
On this special occasion, you mustn't miss the spectacular celebrations in town! The vigorous Fire Dragon Dance followed by the gentler and quieter Lantern Carnivals.
In evenings of the 14th-16th day of the eighth lunar month (24th-26th September, in 2007), residents in Tai Hang (the area off Causeway Bay) would dance a 64-meter fire dragon, which is made from straw and glowing joss sticks. It is believed to be the mysterious way to fight against bad lucks and plagues back into the ages when Tai Hang was still a village. This custom endures till now.
To celebrate this gleeful festival, the government organizes Lantern Carnivals at various locations among the territory every year. Both locals and tourists can enjoy the spectacular thematic lantern displays. At selected sites on specific dates, there are also performances, nostalgic games, palm-readings and lantern riddle games. Details of the carnivals can be obtained at http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/eo.
May we wish you great fun under the fullest moon!
