Here’s to The Moon

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

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Photo by Guzmán Barquín on Unsplash

Traditional Chinese culture worships the moon.

The Chinese calendar is also called the lunar calendar because it is based on the monthly cycle of the moon’s different phases. Besides the Chinese New Year, the second most important Chinese holiday is the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on September 29 this year. In ancient times, the Chinese people used to pray for a good harvest to the moon when it reached its fullest during August (based on the lunar calendar, of course). That moon-worshiping custom gradually evolved into the Mid-Autumn festival, a day when families and loved ones are supposed to get together for dinner, appreciate the beauty of a full moon, celebrate life’s blessings, and pray to the moon goddess for more luck and happiness.

Those unable to celebrate this holiday with loved ones often find comfort in gazing at the moon, knowing the person or people they care deeply are looking at the same object and missing them, too.

When I was young, my father made me read classical Chinese poems. He said every Chinese should take pride and joy in memorizing great verses from the past. Almost every Sunday, he would check on my progress by naming a poem’s title, and I was supposed to recite it.

Poets must have found the moon the most romantic and sentimental object because they wrote many poems about it. One of them was called "Thoughts in the Silent Night" (静夜思), written by Li Bai, one of the most celebrated poets from the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE). It goes like this:

“Moonlight shining through the window

Makes me wonder if there is frost on the ground

Looking up to see the moon

Looking down I miss my hometown.”

As a kid, I couldn’t apprehend what homesickness meant. For several years, my family of five cramped into a one-bedroom flat, and we shared a commune kitchen and bathroom with ten other families. I was so suffocated by being in an overcrowded space all the time that I wished someday I could escape from it and travel to a place far away full of adventures and excitement. Back then, I only liked Li Bai’s poem because it was simple and easy to remember – I understood the difference between studying hard and studying smart early on.