Putri Febriani

MOONCAKE FESTIVAL / LENTERN FESTIVAL

Chinese Mid-Autumn FestivalMid-Autumn Festival, is one of the four traditional Chinese festivals (others are Spring Festival, Tomb-sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival). It is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese people dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month (which falls between the last), a date when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest. The traditional food of this festival is the moon cake, of which there are many different varieties.

The festival consists of three fundamental meanings which are closely tied to one another:

gathering, such as family and friends coming together, or harvesting crops
thanksgiving, to give thanks for the harvest, or for harmonious unions
praying (asking for conceptual or material satisfaction), such as for babies, a spouse, beauty, longevity, or for a good future

Traditions and myths surrounding the festival are formed around these three meanings, although traditions have changed over time due to changes in technology, science, economy, culture, and religion.

Origin In the Zhou Dynasty (11th century-256 B.C.), people held ceremonies to greet winter and worship the moon when the moon became full in mid autumn. The custom was passed down to the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) when the 15th day of the eighth lunar month was formally named the Mid-Autumn Festival. Now when the festival sets in, people would sit together to eat moon cakes, appreciate the bright full moon cakes, appreciate the bright full moon, celebrate the bumper harvest and enjoy the family love and happiness. To the Chinese people, the full moon symbolizes family reunion, as does the "moon cakes." Hence the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Family Reunion Festival.

Celebration and Things to DoAt the Mid-Autumn Festival, people offer sacrifices and pay homage to the moon, and taste moon cakes. In ancient times, when celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, people set a large incense burner table in the courtyard bathed in silver moonlight, on which moon cakes, a water melon cut in the shape of a lotus flower, apples, red jujubes, plums, grapes and other sacrifices were placed. Under the bright moon, a portrait of Moon Goddess was put on a table, facing the moon, and red candles were lit. Then the family members paid homage to the moon one by one, praying for family reunion and safety. The custom of worshiping the moon originated from the capital city in the Northern Song Dynasty. On the night of the festival, all the people o f the whole city, men and women, old and young, put on the adult's clothes, burned joss sticks, paid respects to the moon and expressed their wishes, praying for the blessing of Moon Goddess. Many modern activities of appreciating the moon originated from the activities of worshipping the moon in ancient times. Now, the Chinese people invite friends and relatives to hold family reunion feasts for celebration at the night of the Mid-autumn Festival. After the feasts, they sacrifice moon cakes, fruits and wine to the full moon at the open spaces. Each would make a vow to Goddess of the moon at this time, young men hope to make a beautiful girl friend, conversely, the young girls hope to make a handsome boy friend and become more beautiful; children hope they can take a first class in their study; parents hope their children have a good luck in everything. After the vows, they begin to admire the full moon, taste moon cakes, drinking, chatting even dancing under the moon. In modern China, these are very common things to be done in the Mid-autumn festival. Actually, if you travel to different areas in China you will find some different way of celebration such as: putting pomelo rinds on one's head, carrying the alight lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns, burning incenses to the moon, planting Mid-Autumn trees, collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members, perform the Fire Dragon Dances...these activities are so interesting that many foreigners hope to enjoy the festival with the Chinese families when they visit China during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Moon CakesMoon cakes were elaborate sacrifices offered to Moon Goddess at the beginning. As time goes by, people have gradually integrated the activity in praise of the moon with the moon cakes. Now at the Mid-Autumn Festival, people eat moon cakes to express their homesickness and love for their family member, and their hope for a bumper harvest and a happy life, as the moon cake symbolizes family reunion. Moon cakes made in various parts of China have different flavors. In terms of the places of production, there are Beijing, Guangdong, Suzhou, Taiwan, Yunnan, Hong Kong and Chaozhou moon cakes; in terms of tastes, there are sweet, salty, sweet and salty, and spicy moon cakes; and in terms of fillings, there are five kinds of kernels, sweetened beam paste, crystal sugar, sesame seeds and ham. Some moon cakes have pulp crust; some have sweet crust; and the others have thin and crisp crust. Tourists from all over the world must not forget to taste various kinds of delicious moon cakes at the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Legends
The Chinese people often associate the ancient legends with the silver moon at the Mid-Autumn Festival, such as "Chang'e Flying to the Moon," "Wu Gang Felling the Laurel Tree", and "Jade Rabbit Pounding Herbal Medicines into Pulp," making the festival full of dreamlike and romantic colors. Among, the much-told is Chang'e Flying to the Moon.

In the time of remote antiquity, ten suns abruptly appeared in the sky at the same time in one year. On the earth, the water was drying up, the plants were withering, people and the animals were thirsty up. Houyi, a legendary hero who was a master of archery, saw the fact. He shot down nine suns and the earth survived. His merit was honored by the people, a lot of men sought instruction in archery from him. An evil guy called Fengmeng became one of his students. Before long, Houyi married a fairy virtuous girl - Chang'e. Houyi loved his wife very much and always stayed with her except the time of teaching and hunting.

One day, Houyi get an elixir from Lady Queen Mother (the Heaven Master's wife in Chinese myth) while he was calling on his friends on Kunlun Mountain. It was said that a person could be immortal being immediately if the elixir was taken. However, Houyi could not want to fly to the heaven alone and let his wife alone. He gave her wife the elixir to keep temporarily. Unluckily, the secret was heard by evil Fengmeng.

Three days later, Houyi planned to go out hunting with his students. Fengmeng pretended to be ill. He was promised to stay at home. Soon after Houyi and his other students left, Fengmeng took a sword and attempted to force Chang'e to give him the elixir. Without an urgent aid, Chang'e had to make a prompt decision. She swallowed the elixir and immediately flew out from the house, up to the sky. Worrying about her husband, Chang'e befell and became an immortal being on the moon (where is the nearest from the earth).

At the dusk of the day, Houyi came back home. The handmaidens told him what happened, when he heard that news, he just wanted to kill Fengmeng. But Fengmeng ran away for a long time. The grieved Houyi, calling his wife's name, looked up to moon at night. To his surprise, he saw a figure just the same as Chang'e on the full moon. He hurried to set something what Chang'e like on the table in garden to express that he missed her. The date was just Aug. 15th on Chinese lunar calendar when the clearest and bright full moon appeared.

When the people heard that Chang'e had flown to the moon and became an immortal being, they did the same thing as Houyi, not for love, just praying for blessing. Since then, a tradition has come out and last from generation to generation.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is also referred to as the Spring Festival and is the most traditional and celebrated festival in China. To get ready for the new year ahead, Chinese families are busy spring cleaning the house to get rid of any bad luck in the year before, decorating the entrance doors with the guarding gods to safeguard the family and fend off any bad spirits, putting festive greetings "fai chun" around the house and prepare the new year feast for the family gathering. When the New Year arrives, plentiful of celebration events including the lion dance, fireworks and lantern displays are staged to enhance the festive atmosphere until the middle of the month.

Chinese New Year Myths

There are many Chinese New Year myths. Amongst the others, the Chinese zodiac story is the most legendary.

According to the myth, our ancient ancestors are often threatened by a strange beast. This evil beast is called "year". Its head is as fierce as a lion and body as sturdy as an elephant. It has endless power that can move the mountain with a single roar!

This mighty beast captures other creatures for food. When winter arrives, he failed to capture the creatures in hibernation and food quickly ran out. Consequently, he made his way to the valley to harass the peasants. At first the beast only prey on cattle for food, but eventually started to feed on the peasants.

As time goes by, the peasants spotted the beast weakness. They discovered the beast had three fears - the colour red, bright light and sparkles and loud bangs. They then had a cunning plan, when winter comes and the beast make his way down the mountain, each house is decorated in red and the peasants would dance, cheer and make loud noises. The plan indeed worked and the beast was scared away by the fire crackers that sent bright sparkles in the darkness of the night and deafening loud bangs. The villagers' happy cheers and music did form special powers to get rid of the beast and allowed them to live in harmony thereafter.

On the following day, all the villagers went out of the home to send good wishes to one and other and start to celebrate with festive wine and feast.

To celebrate their success, the villagers decorated their house with red greetings and festive slogans, lit candles and lanterns and played load music every winter to fend off evil spirits. This then became New Year's Eve and the following day became New Year Day, celebrated with family gatherings, families wishing each other, kids wore new clothes. The tradition was passed from one generation to another generation for centuries.

Dong Zhi Festival

When the day is at its shortest and the night at its darkest, China celebrates the Winter Festival, also known as Dongzhi (冬至), which usually falls on December 21 or 22 – the latter in 2011. While it may no longer be a red day, you will still find many Chinese embracing it in the same way they did more than 2,000 years ago.

Back then, the Dongzhi Festival was regarded as a special holiday during which shops were closed down for the day and people didn't have to work. They even had a saying: “The winter solstice is as important as the Chinese New Year.”

However, along with growing modernisation, the festival has lost a lot of its significance in Chinese society. These days, it's just a regular working day for most people, but that still doesn't mean they have stopped celebrating it.

Sweet and prosperous balls

Eating tang yuan is one of the most characteristic aspects of Dongzhi.

The most characteristic aspect of Dongzhi is the tradition of eating tang yuan, which literally means 'family reunion'.

These glutinous white or sometimes coloured balls are made out of rice flour and can either be eaten plain or filled with flavours such as red bean paste or sesame. Served in a hot sweetened soup, tang yuan is not only a trademark of Dongzhi but is also enjoyed throughout the year, especially during winter.

The roundness of the balls symbolises unity and prosperity, which is nothing if not ideal on this gloomiest day of the year. Those who really fancy symbolism may even throw in a few red balls in order to secure their luck in the bright times ahead – the colour red is regarded as a sign of happiness and good fortune in Chinese society.

In keeping up with the old traditions, Dongzhi still sees many Chinese commemorating their ancestors by performing rituals and offering sacrifices.

Also worth mentioning is the Taiwanese tradition of sticking tang yuan on flat surfaces around the house or on the back of the door in order to keep evil spirits away from children.

A year older

Tang yuan: the red ones symbolise happiness and good luck.

Dongzhi is the last festival of the year, occurring only six weeks before the Chinese New Year. However, some believe that Dongzhi is a turning point for all people; the day everybody becomes one year older.

There is some logic behind this belief. As we embark on the darkest day of the year, we know that times will only get brighter from then on, slowly pulling us out from hibernation with increasing daylight.

When conformed to the theory of yin and yang, this becomes even more clear. Up until this day, the cold and negative yin energy has been creeping up on us, but as it reaches its climax on the winter solstice, it starts paving the way for the positive yang energy.

What better way to celebrate these optimistic times ahead than to celebrate with family, enjoy a nice meal and honour deceased relatives?

Despite being an obviously less significant day than it used to be, Dongzhi is still a great example of ancient Chinese traditions that have lived on and are being acknowledged even today. Its laid-back atmosphere could easily be seen as being more preferable by fretful Westerners during the Christmas holiday.

DuanWu Festival / Bakcang Day

Duanwu Festival, also known as Dragon Boat Festival and the Double Fifth, is a traditional and statutory holiday originating in China and associated with a number of East Asian and Southeast Asian societies. In Mandarin, it is known as Duānwǔ Jié; in Hong Kong and Macau, by the Cantonese name Tuen Ng Festival; in Hokkien-speaking areas, by the names Gō͘-go̍eh-cheh/Gō͘-ge̍h-choeh (五月節) and Gō͘-ji̍t-cheh/Gō͘-ji̍t-choeh (五日節). In 2008, it was recognised as a public holiday in mainland China for the first time since the 1940s.The festival has also long been celebrated in Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. Equivalent and related festivals in Asia include the Kodomo no hi in Japan, Dano in Korea, and Tết Đoan Ngọ in Vietnam.

The festival occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunisolar Chinese calendar. This is the source of the alternative name of Double Fifth.The date varies from year to year on the Gregorian calendar. In 2011, this fell on June 6 and in 2012 on June 23. The focus of the celebrations includes eating rice dumplings zongzi,drinking realgar wine xionghuangjiu (雄黃酒), and racing dragon boats.

The sun is considered to be at its strongest around the time of summer solstice ("mid-summer" in traditional East Asia, but "beginning" of summer elsewhere) when the daylight in the northern hemisphere is the longest. The sun, like the Chinese dragon, traditionally represents masculine energy, whereas the moon, like the phoenix, traditionally represents feminine energy. The summer solstice is considered the peak annual moment of male energy while the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, represents the peak annual moment of feminine energy. The masculine image of the dragon is thus naturally associated with Duanwu.

Origin

The Duanwu Festival is believed to have originated in ancient China. A number of theories exist about its origins as a number of folk traditions and explanatory myths are connected to its observance. Today the best known of these relates to the suicide in 278 BCE of Qu Yuan, poet and statesman of the Chu kingdom during the Warring States period.

Qu Yuan

The best-known traditional story holds that the festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BCE) of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty. A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance; he was accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin captured Ying, the capital of Chu. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

It is said that the local people, who admired him, dropped sticky rice triangles wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river to feed the fish. The rice was wrapped so that fish would not eat Qu Yuan's body and eat the rice instead.This is said to be the origin of zongzi. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.

Wu Zixu

Despite the modern popularity of the Qu Yuan origin theory, in the former territory of the state of Wu, the festival commemorated Wu Zixu (died 484 BCE). Wu Zixu was a loyal advisor whose advice was ignored by the king to the detriment of the kingdom. Wu Zixu was forced to commit suicide by the king Fuchai, with his body thrown into the river on the fifth day of the fifth month. After his death, in places such as Suzhou, Wu Zixu is remembered during the Duanwu Festival to this day.

Cao E

The front of the Cao E Temple, facing east, toward the river. Picture taken on 26 January 2009, in Shangyu, Zhejiang, China.

Although the Qu Yuan origin theory is the most popular, much of Northeastern Zhejiang (Shaoxing, Ningbo and Zhoushan) commemorates Cao E (曹娥) (130–143 CE) rather than Qu Yuan. Cao E's father Cao Xu (曹盱) was a shaman who presided over local ceremonies in Shangyu in Zhejiang province. In 143 CE, while presiding over a ceremony commemorating Wu Zixu during the Duanwu Festival, Cao Xu accidentally falls into the river. Cao E, in an act of filial piety, decided to find her father in the river, searching for three days trying to find him. After five days, she and her father were both found dead in the river from drowning. Eight years later, in 151 CE, a temple was built in Shangyu dedicated to the memory of Cao E and her sacrifice for filial piety. To this day, a tributary of the Qiantang River is named after Cao E.

Pre-existing holiday

Some modern researchers suggest that the stories of Qu Yuan or Wu Zixu were superimposed on a pre-existing holiday tradition.The promotion of these stories over the earlier lore of the holiday seems to have been encouraged by Confucian scholars, seeking to legitimize and strengthen their influence at a time when other belief systems were seen as gaining influence in China.

The deaths (and lives) of both Qu Yuan and Wu Zixu were recorded in Sima Qian's Shiji, completed 187 and 393 years after the events, respectively. While Sima Qian gave high praise to both characters, there is no evidence showing any link between the historic account of these characters in Shiji and the popularity of the festival in their names.

Many traditional rituals of the Duanwu Festival emphasize the avoidance of disease. The desire to prevent health hazards associated with the mid-summer months may have been the primary original motive behind the holiday.

Another theory, advanced by Wen Yiduo, is that the Duanwu Festival had its origins in dragon worship. Support is drawn from two key traditions of the festival: the tradition of zongzi, or throwing food into the river, and dragon boat racing. The food may have originally represented an offering to the dragon king, while dragon boat racing naturally reflects reverence of the dragon and the active yang energy associated with it. This combines with the tradition of visiting friends and family on boats.

Another suggestion is that the festival celebrates a widespread feature of east Asian agrarian societies: the harvest of winter wheat. Offerings were regularly made to deities and spirits at such times: in the ancient Yue, dragon kings; in the ancient Chu, Qu Yuan; in the ancient Wu, Wu Zixu (as a river god); in ancient Korea, mountain gods (see Dano (Korean festival)). As interactions between different regions increased, these similar festivals eventually merged into one holiday.

Public holiday

The festival was long marked as a festival culturally in China. However, the People's Republic of China government, established in 1949, did not officially recognize Duanwu as a public holiday. Beginning in 2005, the government began to plan for the re-recognition of three traditional holidays, including Duanwu. In 2008, Duanwu was celebrated as not only a festival but also a public holiday in the People's Republic of China for the first time.

Events and traditions

- Dragon boat race : Dragon boat race tradition has existed since the Age of Warring States. This contest is still there until now and well maintained each year in the Chinese Mainland , Hong Kong , Taiwan and in the United States . There is even an international scale event attended by participants from manca countries, most originating from Europe or North America . Dragon boat rowed in doubles is usually suitable length of the boat.

- Eat Bakcang : The tradition of eating bakcang officially made one of the activities in the festival since Peh Cun Jin Dynasty . Previously, although bakcang been popular in China, but have not yet become a symbolic food festival. Bakcang form actually also many things and we see now is only one of many forms and types bakcang earlier. In Taiwan, at the time of the Ming Dynasty end, bakcang form brought by immigrants from Fujian is rounded depressed, quite another to form triangular prism that we see now. Fill bakcang too many things and not just meat. Some contents of vegetables, some are made in small, but without content then eaten with serikaya , sweet sugar.

- Suspend Ai and Changpu grass : Peh Cun falling in the summer is usually regarded as the many months of his illness, until the houses usually do the cleaning, then hung grass Ai (Hanzi:艾草) and Changpu (Hanzi:菖埔) in front of the house to repel and prevent any future disease. So, this festival is also closely related with health care tradition in Chinese society

- Midday bath : This tradition is only available in the community that comes from Fujian ( Hokkian , Hokchiu , Hakka ), Guangdong ( Teochiu , Kengchiu , Hakka) and Taiwan. They take and keep the water at noon Peh Cun festival, the trusts can be used to cure a disease when the bath or drink after cooking.

And there are many other activities and traditions vary in each province in China. Quarterly Manchu , Korean , Miao , Mongols also celebrate this festival with their respective traditions.