Chinese National Holiday

October 1st marks the annual celebration of Chinese National Day.  I would liken this to the Fourth of July in the US.  The official holiday is for three days however it is stretched to a full 7 day holiday.  Many companies will have the employees work the weekend prior to the holiday and then take all 5 days of the work week as vacation. Most Chinese use this time to travel back to their hometowns to visit friends and family.  Others plan trips abroad to sight see or just simply relax.

I have heard this time also referred to as Mid-Autumn Festival, New Moon Festival or as Landon says, "It's Moon Cake Day!"  One of the traditions around this time of the year is to give moon cakes to your friends and families.  Moon cakes are hard to describe but the best I can do is liken them to the holiday fruitcake that Americans re-gift, I mean gift, to each other around Christmas time.  More important than the actual cake is the presentation and the gesture of good will.  The moon cakes are packaged in very elaborate gift boxes and each cake is then individually packaged in its own intricate little box. We were advised that we needed to give moon cakes to both our driver and our ayi (maid) or else they would lose face among their fellow peers.  So Cynthia got the scoop on the best ones to purchase from some friends that have been here longer than us and we made sure to not allow any "face" to be lost on our watch. 

Now you are probably wondering what exactly IS a moon cake?  Well, essentially it is a marzipan type center that has been coated with a pie-like crust with some sort of intricate Chinese pattern pressed into the surface.  The filling varies from red bean paste to an actual egg yolk (hard boiled texture) which I think represents the full harvest moon - hence the name as well as the association with the Mid Autumn festival.  We were given a lovely gift box of moon cakes from one of my co-workers.  We have tried them but found them to not be exactly pleasing to the Western palette.  In fact, when I ask my Chinese friends most of them say that they really don't like moon cakes but that they have to buy them every year or else they would be considered being very rude by their families (who really don't care for the taste either but you had better give them to me anyway).  Now that I think about it this whole Moon Cake phenomenon sounds like some sort of a scam run by the Chinese moon cake industry - kind of like Hallmark cards manufacturing fake holidays like National Garbage Collectors day then run sentimental ads that guilt you into buying a card for Gary the Garbageman. (Not sure where that came from - I guess I have some suppressed anger towards Hallmark)

Anyway I want to thank those of you who send notes and comments regarding the blog.  I am glad that you are enjoying these random journal entries.  I think it will be fun to go back a few years from now and recall all the experiences being documented.  I am trying to get you-know-who to try her hand at this as I think she would offer an entirely different perspective.  We'll see.