The LambCutlet Disorganisation

The 15th day of the 8th month is time for 中秋節 (Mid-Autumn Festival) by the good old Chinese lunisolar calendar, which Westerners will mostly know it by the transliteration of it’s less common Chinese name, 月餅節 (Mooncake Festival). This 8th full moon of the year is noted for it’s brightness and roundedness thusly symbolising family unity and togetherness. Traditionally, Chinese families and their friends will gather to visit a scenic spot and gaze at the moon, whilst munching on mooncakes, pomelos (the grapefruit is a cross between a pomelo and an orange), startfruits (carambolas) and perhaps even the odd steamed sweet white bun filled with lotus seed paste. People that work the land will also celebrate this day as it signified the end of the agricultural season with the crops having been harvested on this date. Indeed; in the West, this 8th full moon is known as the “Harvest Moon”.

The people of 香港 (Hong Kong) always celebrated the the major Chinese festivals in a way only they could… coming out in their hundreds of thousands and lapping it up. The two scenic spots which families congregated on in 香港島 (Hong Kong island) are 維多利亞公園 (Victoria Park) and 太平山頂 (The Peak, née Victoria Peak) with the park often becoming a sea of families having picnics. The kiddies proudly carrying their lanterns, ranging from the very traditional styles made from crêpe paper and depending on the design may have a supporting bamboo frame, then more modern ones which are covered in coloured acetate film, both lit with a red wax candle with the other end of the spectrum where battery powered ones made from injection moulded plastic may be preferable since fire and children can have quite interesting results and at least avoids the tears which would no doubt come should a child’s favourite lantern suddenly decide it should spontaenously combust in an impressive fireball! :D

The lantern designs would literally be of anything auspicious from the usual lotus, full moon and starfruit shaped lanterns to elaborate ones which take the form of animals such as 錦鯉 (Brocade Carp, “Nishikigoi” in Japanese), goldfish, horses, tigers, roosters, deers and so on. I certainly recall having one of a baby deer about 3 foot long made from bamboo and clear acetate decorated with specks of shiny glitter which was very pretty sometime around the age of 6, perhaps 7… In fact, being actutely aware of not wanting it to be a deer shaped fireball, I used a yellow chemical lightstick in a flash of lateral thinking which meant there was no candle to set fire to things, didn’t need a battery to operate and lasted a heck of a lot longer and brighter… It must have been a bright idea (pardon the pun) as the next few years I saw more and more kiddies do exactly the same thing! I knew I should have bloody patented it… :D

The origins of the festival are a little murkier compared to other Chinese festivals, one relating to the rebellion against Mongol Empire and it’s occupation of China during the early 14th century known as the 元朝 (Yuan Dynasty) and the other to the Chinese Moon godess, 嫦娥 (Chang’e) where the latter has two variants of the story! The story which tells of the overthrow of the Mongols boils down to the fact that Mongols didn’t eat mooncakes, a very dense sweet baked cake with lotus seed or mung bean paste plus a salted egg yolk in the middle, so it became an ideal way for the Chinese rebels to hide secret messages to their compatroits in performing their coup d’état. As for the Chinese Moon godess, 嫦娥 (Chang’e) versions, there are “Chang’e and Houyi the Archer” and “Chang’e and the Cruel Emperor”:

Chang’e and Houyi were immortals living in heaven. One day, the ten sons of the Jade Emperor transformed into ten suns (no pun intended), causing the earth to scorch. Having failed to order his sons to stop ruining the earth, the Jade Emperor summoned Houyi for help. Houyi, using his legendary archery skills, shot down nine of the sons, but spared one son to be the sun. The Jade Emperor was obviously not pleased with Houyi’s solution to save the earth: nine of his sons were dead. As punishment, the Jade Emperor banished Houyi and Chang’e to live as mere mortals on earth.

Seeing that Chang’e felt extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Houyi decided to journey on a long, perilous quest to find the pill of immortality so that the couple could be immortals again. At the end of his quest he met the Queen Mother of the West who agreed to give him the pill, but warned him that each person would only need half the pill to become immortal.

Houyi brought the pill home and stored it in a case. He warned Chang’e not to open the case and then left home for a while. Like Pandora in Greek mythology, Chang’e became too curious: she opened up the case and found the pill just as Houyi was returning home. Nervous that Houyi would catch her discovering the contents of the case, she somehow accidentally swallowed the entire pill. She started to float into the sky because of the overdose. Houyi wanted to shoot her in order to prevent her from floating further, but he could not bear to aim the arrow at her. Chang’e kept on floating until she landed on the moon.

While she became lonely on the moon without her husband, she did have company. A jade rabbit, who manufactured elixirs, also lived on the moon. (Note that Japanese pop culture also has plenty of references about rabbits living on the moon.)

Another companion is the woodcutter Wu Gang. The woodcutter offended the gods in his attempt to achieve immortality and was therefore banished on the moon. Wu Gang was allowed to leave the moon if he could cut down a tree that grew there. The problem was that each time he chopped the tree, the tree would instantly grow back, effectively condemning him to live on the moon for eternity.

Many years after she was already the moon goddess, Cheng E looked down upon Earth and saw that a terribly cruel and tyrannical emperor sat on the throne. To help the people, she allowed herself to be reborn into the mortal world. The other members of her mortal family were either killed or enslaved by the emperor, but Chang’e managed to escape to the countryside.

Meanwhile, the emperor was aging and obsessed with discovering the elixir of life. He had people all over the land brought to him and demanded of them how to find the elixir of life; nobody knew, of course, but the emperor would not accept ignorance for an answer and executed all those who could not answer.

In the countryside, Chang’e met the goddess of compassion Guan Yin, who proceeded to give Chang E a small elixir. Chang E brought the elixir to the emperor. The suspicious emperor worried that it was poison and demanded that Chang E taste the elixir first. She did, showing no ill effects, so then the emperor took the elixir and promptly died. Then, Chang E also left the mortal world; the effects of the elixir had only been delayed for her. However, instead of dying, she ascended to the moon to retake her place as a goddess.

Indeed, images of 嫦娥 (Chang’e) are often used as decoration for the tins in which mooncakes are sold in, made and packaged by a large number of different bakeries since mooncakes themselves in modern times have proved far too time consuming for most families to make as the filling for the cakes take anywhere between 2 to 4 weeks to properly prepare!