Saturday Mr. P and I went down to Chinatown for the opening festivities of the Moon festival. I wasn’t all that up-to-date on the whole origin and history of the celebration but I am, without a doubt, always up for lion dancers, dragons from Hong Kong and the chance to see Peking Opera. Because one thing guaranteed to get me out of bed in the morning is the promise of loud gongs, over the top costuming and melodrama. My God, the melodrama.

Come to find out the Moon festival story is a bit different depending on your sources but the major highlights include Hou Yi, a magical archer who can kill anything real or mythical, and his wife Chang E who goes on to become the Moon Goddess. And while the details vary, basically the story goes that at one point in time the earth had ten suns. One day all ten of them aligned and threatened to scorch the earth dry. The king asks Hou Yi to shoot down nine of the suns, which he did, leaving only one last sun. The archer was rewarded with a pill of eternal life but was advised to be spiritually pure before he took it. While he was off becoming perfect his wife found the pill and swallowed it herself. Hou Yi finds out and chasers her to the moon at which time she turns into a three-legged toad as punishment. She spits out part of the pill and asks the moon rabbit to make another pill from the leftovers. So, evidently, the full moon is the rabbit pounding the pill in a mortar and pestle? I’m not sure. Anyway, Hou Yi eventually simmered down and built a castle in the moon so they could live together forever becoming both the Yin and the Yang.

We did have the chance to meet both Hou Yi and Change E, who must have turned back from that whole toad incident, as they were out perusing some of the local stalls.

Also there’s the eating of moon cakes. Which Mr. P and I have determined is the Chinese equivalent of the Christmas fruitcake. The cakes come in a variety of flavors I had coconut, Mr. P had mixed nuts and ham. They’re full of dried fruit and spices, nothing too crazy. I’ve been unpleasantly surprised by the red and black bean paste before so at least I knew to steer clear of those as dessert items. We had ours with the optional egg yolk, which I think I’ll do without next time seeing as it was salty enough to have been hatched from the dead sea, but they weren't too bad on the whole. In the past the Han Chinese used the cakes as a way to pass messages regarding the overthrow of the Mongol invaders to each other but my moon cake was pretty mute on that subject.

Lion Dancers

Lion Dancers with Dragon

Dragon and fire ball

Dragon dancing

Dragon

Hou Yi window shopping

Hou Yi taking a stroll

Hou Yi and the Mrs.

Ham and mixed fruit moon cake with egg yolk