The past weekend was a holiday, celebrating the Chinese Moon Festival, now less romantically called the Mid-Autumn Festival. I missed it last year, having arrived in mid-October, so for Aunt Kristel and I, it was our first time to see the festival. It was a busy weekend, because the students had time off school, so many of them called and invited us to their homes to meet their parents, and have dinner. We also ate many many mooncakes! You can see my mooncake in the picture! Aunt Kristel has copied some information about the history of the festival here, so have a look!
In China and many other Asian countries people celebrate the Harvest Moon on the 15th day of the eighth month of their lunar calendar. The date in the Western calendar changes yearly. This year, it falls on September 14, 2008.
The Harvest Moon or Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhong Qiu Jie) is a day of family reunions much like a Western Thanksgiving. Chinese people believe that on that day, the moon is the roundest and brightest signaling a time of completeness and abundance. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, children are delighted to stay up past midnight, carrying colourful lanterns into the wee hours as families take to the streets to moon-gaze.
It is also a romantic night for lovers, who sit holding hands on hilltops, riverbanks and park benches, watching the brightest moon of the year!
The festival dates back to the Tang dynasty in 618 A.D., and as with many celebrations in China there are old stories closely associated with it.
The Legend of the Princess Chang Er
It's said that in the old old days, the earth once had ten suns circling over it. Each day the suns' mother took one sun to light up the earth. But one day all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The Emperor of Heaven ordered a strong archer Hou Yi to save the earth. He succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns. One day, Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However his beautiful wife Chang Er drank the elixir of life in order to save the people from her husband's tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating and flew to the moon. Hou Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he didn't shoot down the moon.
Another version of the story is that Hou Yi built a beautiful jade palace for the Goddess of the Western Heaven. The Goddess was very happy and she gave Hou Yi a special pill that contained elixir of life and he could use it after he had accomplished certain things. However, Chang Er took it without telling her husband. The Goddess of the Western Heaven was very angry and Chang Er was sent to the moon forever.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
Letter to the girls from Marco - summer in Amdo 2008
Hello small lunatics! Did you all have a good summer? Aunt Kristel and I had an AMAZING summer. We travelled up on the train to the same places we went in the winter holiday, to meet our old friends. Aunt Kristel had to teach in the school, but when she didn’t have class, we went for long walks on the grassland. There were zillions of wildflowers, it was so beautiful, and as you walked, you could smell all the flowers. You can see me with the flowers in one picture! We also climbed the mountains, and from the top, you could see all over the valley. There were many nomads living in tents. Aunt Kristel went to visit some with her friends, but I was afraid because the nomad dogs were really big and scary, so I hid in Aunt Kristel’s pocket while we were there. We stayed there for most of the summer, and had butter tea and tsampa every morning for breakfast! Tsampa is a kind of flour made from barley, and the usual breakfast is to mix it into dough with tea and butter, and eat it! Maybe I’ll bring some back with me next time I visit, so you can try it. We also had nomad cheese, but it’s really not like cheese in Canada. It’s small crunchy chunks. I don’t think Grandpa would like it much, might break all his teeth!
Aunt Kristel also took me to visit Tso Ngonpo with here. That is the biggest lake in Tibet and China. Tso means lake, and Ngonpo means blue. It really is a blue lake! It is so clear you can see down really far into the water. We went out on a speedboat, and then drove all around the lake. On the way we visited Bird Island. That’s a really famous place because there are thousands of birds. But it was really smelly. We could smell it long before we saw it. But it was very beautiful, the island was covered with big black birds called cormorants. That kind of bird always lives by water, because they catch fish. Maybe that’s why they smell so bad. I think mice smell much nicer, don’t you?!
Later we went on another trip to a place called Parey. That was on the border of two provinces, Qinghai and Gansu. Maybe you can find it on the map. It’s exactly north of Xining. It was a really beautiful place, with lots of waterfalls. We only stayed there for one day though, and saw the white yaks! Parey is the only place in the world that has white yaks. Aunt Kristel jumped out of the car once to take a photo.
Next we went to a really cool place called Repgong. In Chinese it’s called Tongren…try and find it on the map! There were many monasteries, and the most famous artists in Tibet come from here, so Aunt Kristel had a good time looking at all the painting and art on the buildings and in the temples. Then we went with a friend of hers to visit his family. But his family were real nomads, and there was no road to the place they lived, so we had to walk and climb mountains to go there! It took about 4 hours, then we stayed one night with his brother’s family in a tent. Can you find the picture of the nomad tent we stayed in? The mother had to get up early in the morning to milk the yaks, you cans ee a picture of that too. Some people put saddles on their yaks, and went away to a village to bring back flour and other things. It was very very cold in the morning! The only warm place was by the fire in the tent. The next day, we walked to another village to visit my friend’s mother. More and more walking…up hills and down hills…no people anywhere, only yaks and sheep and flowers. There were some cute little furry animals called abras, and we tried to catch one so I could talk to him, but they were too fast to catch! (One of Aunt Kristel’s students caught some though, look for the picture!) That night, the family made special food for us, sausages….but it was really gross to watch them making them so we went out for a walk instead, and came back when they were ready to eat! The day after that we visited our friend’s monastery. But it was a special month, when noone was allowed to go into the monastery, and the monks had to stay in the monastery area. So Aunt Kristel and I stayed in a tent on a hill beside a forest by ourselves, and the monks came there to visit us! It was very exciting, and I wasn’t afraid at all!
After that we went back to Repgong, stopping on the way to visit some famous old monasteries. Then we went back on a bus to the monastery school to say goodbye to our friends before we came back here. And two days after we got back there was another earthquake! I think that earthquakes follow Aunt Kristel wherever she goes….
So that’s the end of my story this time!
Aunt Kristel also took me to visit Tso Ngonpo with here. That is the biggest lake in Tibet and China. Tso means lake, and Ngonpo means blue. It really is a blue lake! It is so clear you can see down really far into the water. We went out on a speedboat, and then drove all around the lake. On the way we visited Bird Island. That’s a really famous place because there are thousands of birds. But it was really smelly. We could smell it long before we saw it. But it was very beautiful, the island was covered with big black birds called cormorants. That kind of bird always lives by water, because they catch fish. Maybe that’s why they smell so bad. I think mice smell much nicer, don’t you?!
Later we went on another trip to a place called Parey. That was on the border of two provinces, Qinghai and Gansu. Maybe you can find it on the map. It’s exactly north of Xining. It was a really beautiful place, with lots of waterfalls. We only stayed there for one day though, and saw the white yaks! Parey is the only place in the world that has white yaks. Aunt Kristel jumped out of the car once to take a photo.
Next we went to a really cool place called Repgong. In Chinese it’s called Tongren…try and find it on the map! There were many monasteries, and the most famous artists in Tibet come from here, so Aunt Kristel had a good time looking at all the painting and art on the buildings and in the temples. Then we went with a friend of hers to visit his family. But his family were real nomads, and there was no road to the place they lived, so we had to walk and climb mountains to go there! It took about 4 hours, then we stayed one night with his brother’s family in a tent. Can you find the picture of the nomad tent we stayed in? The mother had to get up early in the morning to milk the yaks, you cans ee a picture of that too. Some people put saddles on their yaks, and went away to a village to bring back flour and other things. It was very very cold in the morning! The only warm place was by the fire in the tent. The next day, we walked to another village to visit my friend’s mother. More and more walking…up hills and down hills…no people anywhere, only yaks and sheep and flowers. There were some cute little furry animals called abras, and we tried to catch one so I could talk to him, but they were too fast to catch! (One of Aunt Kristel’s students caught some though, look for the picture!) That night, the family made special food for us, sausages….but it was really gross to watch them making them so we went out for a walk instead, and came back when they were ready to eat! The day after that we visited our friend’s monastery. But it was a special month, when noone was allowed to go into the monastery, and the monks had to stay in the monastery area. So Aunt Kristel and I stayed in a tent on a hill beside a forest by ourselves, and the monks came there to visit us! It was very exciting, and I wasn’t afraid at all!
After that we went back to Repgong, stopping on the way to visit some famous old monasteries. Then we went back on a bus to the monastery school to say goodbye to our friends before we came back here. And two days after we got back there was another earthquake! I think that earthquakes follow Aunt Kristel wherever she goes….
So that’s the end of my story this time!
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