Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Mid-Autumn Festival in Taiwan 2010

By Kang-Hsin Fan


This moon festival, in the middle of the eighth lunar Chinese month when
the moon is at its full glory, is one of the three important legal holidays in the Chinese calendar. The night is a reunion day to meet families, to admire the graceful moon, and to eat delicious moon cakes. Eating various delicious pomeloes and moon cakes are a part of the activities and the taste of the BBQ is a popular phenomenon.

What is a moon cake? It’s very rich pastry with an egg yolk inside. Traditionally, farmers celebrate the end of summer harvesting season on this date. Family members and friends will gather together to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, eat moon cakes, and pomeloes. Nowadays, there are additional cultural customs, including BBQ outside under the moon, putting pomelo rides on one’s head, and planting mid-autumn trees.

This festival is also Taiwan’s Ghost Festival. People are believed that the
gate of the underworld fly open on the first day of the Ghost Festival. The living
do their best to deal with the situation, including burning paper money to keep
them happy, being loud to prevent them from pursuing any unpleasant business.

Reference: http://ngokhong.1.forumer.com/index.php?s=b6c327a0dabb262a78b8017fa27eef16&showtopic=242&st=0&#entry2232

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