Today in the PRC we are smack-dab between two holidays: National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. A week of festivities translates into eight days of vacation! It's needless to say that I'm quite fond of China's version of October. =)
Yesterday was China's National Day -- the 60th Anniversary of Communist China. 60 is a number of great significance because in the Chinese zodiac, 60 is formed by the 5 elements and 12 animals. One of the teachers in my department told me that a man's 60th birthday celebration will always trump his 50th, a tradition that reminds me of the Japanese kanreki.
Because of the huge significance attached to China's 60th b-day, you can imagine what a huge deal it was, even in remote little towns like Lidu. For a week or so leading up to the big day, explosions of fireworks could be heard at all times during the night, filling the air with festive anticipation.
Nationalist sentiments of any kind usually make me feel uneasy, but I was so impressed by the scale of the preparations being made throughout the country that when yesterday finally arrived, I could not help but feel quite festive myself. Earlier in the week, one of my students taught me how to say, "Happy National Day" in Chinese, and I found myself gushing the phrase to every passerby I met. The waiban assistant later explained that people don't actually say that to each other, which explains the confused smiles I got in return...
Because most of the action was in Beijing, my sitemate and I went to the OK Restaurant in hopes of catching glimpses of the massive military parade. As we treated ourselves to cold beer and a delicious meal of lotus root, spicy eggplant and kungpao chicken, we couldn't help but gape at Aunty Huang's TV set. For a good ten minutes, a convertible carried the dignified Hu Jintao through a seemingly endless, impeccable stretch of saluting soldiers.
Unfortunately, we missed the live broadcasting of the parade, but video clips of it are all over the internet. It's utterly amazing! The snazzy uniforms, the synchronized marching, the baton twirling... check it out! Here's a good article/video/slideshow package by the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/world/asia/02china.html?_r=1&ref=world.
The second holiday of the month is tomorrow, Oct. 3, Mid-Autumn Festival, a harvest festival celebrated when the moon is at its fullest. In honor of the moon, which in Chinese folklore is said to be inhabited by the beautiful, luminous goddess Chang'e, the traditional food is the mooncake or yuebing. Mooncakes are delicious little pies that are usually stuffed with dried fruit and nuts. The waiban gave my sitemate and I each a big bag stuffed with various types of mooncakes, and for the past several days, I've been having them for breakfast. I know that in some parts of China this holiday is celebrated with the hanging of lanterns, but I'm not quite sure what will happen in Lidu. I'll be celebrating with some students over hotpot, so hopefully they'll be able to fill me in on Lidu's traditions.
**(updated)
Just got back from a delicious fish hotpot, and following an unfinished dinner conversation on mooncakes, a very industrious student of mine just sent me this explanation:
Hi kacie,
En! Now I am writing to you to tell you something about the moon cake.
It’s the paticular food of the Mid-Autumn Festival in china. There is an old saying, in the ancient times, there was ten suns in the sky and the heat make the crops died, consider the farmers’ lives, the emperor asked a guy named hou yi to shoot nine suns down, and then the world became cool in winter and hot in summer, the spring and the autumn is warm. After that, the emperor gave him a pill of immortality, but it was ate by his wife, a beauty everyone her Chang E and she flied into the moon and lived in the moon till today. The people lay out their mooncakes as an offering to her during Mid-Autumn Festival.
Till now, there are many kinds of mooncakes, while the basic materials are: flour, vegetal fat, white sugar, pignut, sesame, egg, sunflower seeds almond, pistachio, pecan, cashew, macadamia and something else. It all depends, different tastes would add the different materials.
Today I am very happy because I caught the chance to speak english. Thank you very!
Oh! Is that mooncake the gentleman gave you delicious ?
Ok! That’s all!
Happy everyday!
中秋接快乐！
Posts
wow
ReplyDeleteHaha, Kacie, I'm eating the lotus mooncake with egg.
ReplyDeleteDidn't watch the show either, but I heard it's very "luxurious".
En, I guess the national day celebration is a way to ensure the people in China that the country is safe and secure.
Now, you have a loyal reader for your blog who is also made in China!
:P