Steven Sim

The gist of the stories seemed to reflect the Taoist philosophy of yin yang - there is a female element and there is a male element. And the interesting feature which runs throughout all the popular tales is the struggle between the two elements. There is a contention between good and evil, man and woman, peasant and ruler, death and life in all these stories. This theme came as no surprise in a culture permeated by Taoism. The more historical context for the origin of the mid-autumn festival relates to celebration of harvest (abundance). The whole story adds up to the core of Taoist thought - the contest between opposing elements results in harmony. By the telling and retelling of tales which reflects this primordial contest at each time of the year when the moon is brightest (full circle, again a symbol of harmony) - so it was believed on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month - the agricultural Chinese people celebrates the harmony of nature - only when Nature is “balanced” can good harvests be expected -  of social life and of family life - it will be a time of social gathering and family reunion.

Another famous story, most probably historical, tells of the origin of eating mooncake during the mid-autumn festival. The rebellion of the Hans Chinese against their Mongol rulers in the Yuan Dynasty culminated in a coup. During the mid-autumn festival, details of the coup was inserted into mooncakes and passed among the peasant revolutionaries. In my own opinion, I believe mooncakes were already present in mid-autumn celebration prior to that incident. Its ”heroic aid” to the success of the revolution was probably incidental. The season was well selected as the timing for attack as it was when the guards were let down for the harvest festivity. As mooncakes were already an item eaten during the celebration, though probably not as popular as today (my own theory, still unsubstantiated), some ingenious fellows must had conveniently thought up the idea of hiding revolutionary messages in the mooncakes. This practice of communicating secret information through messages hidden in foodstuff however was not novel. But the point is, mooncakes gained popularity after the incident and regardless of how and why it was first eaten (probably no one actually knew), today, almost all stories of mooncakes go back to the coup in Yuan Dynasty.

Themes of the Festival

From our discussion of the background stories, the prevalent theme of our celebration is harmony. Even as the Chinese tells the story of the Hans rebellion, like all Chinese stories of usurpation an evil tyrant, it ends with “tian xia tai ping” (Peace and Harmony Under Heaven). I believe this is one very important value of the Chinese people, it is an important theme in Taoism and Confucianism, the two native “religions” of China (note: there are not a few scholars who regard Confucianism as a philosophy rather than a religion). Harmony further conjures up theme-words such as completeness, mean, peace, stability, simplicity. It is the image of a large family dinning together on the same table, it is the image of a country where its people went about their business without trouble, it is the image of good weather, green fields, birds and animals, bumper harvest, enough food on the table, the image of a perfect-shaped moon, yellow and shining brightly against the black backdrop of the night sky.

Practices during the Celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival

Like the stories of its background, the practices during the celebration of mid-autumn festival also varied depending on local traditions - whether the different district of China, or the different dialect groups, or the diaspora Chinese in different countries. Most of the sources relates the mid-autumn festivals to the eating of mooncakes, which if as I believed, only gained popularity after the Yuan Dynasty. Today, mooncakes are as indispensable as they are varied during the festival.

The other practice unique to the festival today is lanterns. In Malaysia at least, children used to carry lanterns and walk around the neighbourhood, sometimes half chanting jingles commemorating the event. Lanterns are also hung at homes and on the streets. More often than not, these serve as mere festive decoration, if only auspicious ones, such as the Christian practice of putting up a Christmas tree. One of my speculations for the lanterns being used is that the darkness of the nights calls for cheap and portable light source when families and friends are gathered to watch the moon.

Of course, probably the most important event during the celebration, which today is dwindling in practice (too many high rise? pollutions?) is gathering outdoor, usually after a reunion dinner, to enjoy mooncake and appreciate the beautiful full moon. In many of the sources found on the internet, the practice of appreciating the moon also includes worshipping the moon. When the animistic ancient Chinese man looked up at the sky on mid-autumn night, the bright round moon seemed to invite him to adore her, even as she remind him of the unbroken circle, symbol of the perfect Harmony which the Confucian and Taoist sages dreamed of attaining. Of course, as the legend developed, people began to worship not the moon itself, but the goddess or fairy on the moon - Chang Er, the woman character in our above discussion on the background of the festival. The worship therefore is three-fold, 1) the animistic worship of nature, esp. the main actors of the nature's time-seasonal shift, i.e. sun, moon, sky; 2) religious worship of the symbol of the highest ideal - Da Tong (Great Harmony as especially envisioned by Confucius) and 3) the commonfolk Taoist worship of the deity Chang Er (I distinguish between commonfolk/religious Taoism and the philosophical Taoism. This distinction was told to me to be from a number of Taoist scholars)

From my own observation, and I believe I am not far from the truth, the first and second aspect of moon-worship during the mid-autumn festival is not so prevalent today. In fact, as we become more educated, fewer Chinese will practice animism, the worship of natural object as divine. The ignorance of many modern Chinese of Confucian and Taoist philosophy also excludes them from thinking of the moon as symbol of Da Tong. Nonetheless, the third aspect of worship still holds ground in the celebration of mid-autumn festival today.

While this was a main practice in the older days, the outdoor gathering to appreciate the full moon is not so popular today. Those were times when entertainments were few and costly, when life's pace was slower. People today would rather watch a movie on TV than to stare at the moon amidst hazy sky and populated air.  And perhaps, the presence of brightly-lid high rise prevents the enjoyment of the full moon (if you have seen Petronas Twin Tower, you would know what i mean). Therefore, I must conclude that the custom of appreciating the moon today is more of religious than aesthetic practice. The fact that the celebration falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month intensifies the religious aspect, as the 1st and 15th day of each lunar month were considered auspicious (esp. to commonfolk Buddhists - I again distinguish between commonfolk Buddhists and Buddhism per se).

A Christian Evaluation

 From our discussion in the previous sections, it can be concluded that the main theme of the mid-autumn festival is “harmony” (refer above for the definition and expansion of this word) and today the practices during the festival are, among others:

(1) Eating mooncakes together with family and friends
(2) Putting up lanterns at homes or parading with lanterns around the neighbourhood
(3) Worship of the moon goddess/fairy, Chang Er.