The Moon Fest 2008

September 14 was the Moon Festival for the year of 2008. It's August 15 of the Chinese calendar and thus falls on a different date of the solar calendar every year.

Jordan had only one day to visit me, but he came down anyway. "I don't want you to be alone for the Moon Fest," he said. He knew how important it was to me. We had mooncakes, of course. My favorite flavor is still jujube paste with salty yolks or pine nuts. For four years, it was the first and the only mooncake I had had.

The bus was at 6:30 pm. I went to the Port Authority with Jordan so he could spend another 3.5 hours to take the bus home, and then went down to the East Village for Ken's song night. I had no clue what it was going to be until I got there. It turned out that it was an event where people got together and sang folk songs, and the theme of the night was animals and plants. I know zero folk songs and therefore couldn't sing with them, yet it was interesting to watch/listen. I did sing a song that I knew that had animals in it--Little Lamb from Gypsy.

It was 10 pm when the song night ended and I stepped out of the bar. I lifted my head and looked at the sky, and there the moon was, full and bright, smiling at me. I started to tear up. I missed my family.

It is probably hard for a lot of people to understand, but there is a very strong connection between the image of the full moon and family reunion. Being one of the three biggest Chinese holidays (the other two are the Lantern Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival), the Moon Fest is a holiday that families get together--probably the equivalent of Thanksgiving. There are also many many myths and folk tales about the moon. For example, the "Jade Rabbit" who makes medicine on the moon, the fairy "Chong-Ug" who flew to the moon, the lumberman "Wu Gung" who tries to fell the cinnamon tree but never succeeds, etc.

So I decided to make something about the moon to remember this holiday. :)