Around; just not here.

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:57:13 GMT

I'm doin' okay.

How 'bout you?

In which Deanie craves calorie-filled chinese delicacies and fire hazards.

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 15:07:38 GMT

Tonight is the Mooncake Festival, otherwise known as the Lantern Festival. The Mooncake Festival, ~~for those of you white supremacist ignoramuses who know nothing about anything outside your own pop culture,~~ for those of you who aren't familiar with chinese culture, is based on the following actual happening.

In 1280 AD, the Mongolians destroyed the Soong Dynasty and controlled China during the Yuan Dynasty (1280AD -1368 AD). Under Mongolian rule, Chinese people were oppressed, persecuted and treated like slaves. Finally, the Chinese had enough and planned a revolution to be held during the August Moon Festival in 1368.

Because Mongolians don’t eat mooncakes, the Chinese planned to overthrow the Mongolians by sending secret messages in mooncakes. Chinese bakers were told to send mooncakes to all Chinese households with the message to execute all Mongolians after the August Moon family gathering. Chinese families were instructed to not to eat the mooncakes until the 15th of the 8th lunar moon.

Interesting, eh? This was the true story. There is another story associated with it, this one a legend.
The legend part tells about a beautiful empress with her husband emperor who ruled over China, hundreds of years ago. The empress was a woman, gentle and good in her ways; while her husband was just the exact opposite. He was a greedy man and many suffered under his rule. As the story goes, he was obsessed with the concept of eternal life and invited physicians far and wide to make a kind of pill which could make him immortal. When the empress heard about it, she was determined to stop this; she did not want her beloved country to suffer under this man forever. One day, a well known physician actually presented the emperor with the pill of imortality. That night, the empress crept into her husband's room, took the pill and swallowed it. The emperor was furious and he raised his hand to hit her. But she floated away to the moon. So chinese believe that during the mooncake festival, when the moon is roundest and largest, the form of a woman can be seen. So this established the significance of the moon in this festival, since the moon has often been used to represent a woman, yin, while the sun, has been used as the stronger character of a man, yang.

The lantern part? Comes from another part of the actual story.

Fire has always been China's factor for messages. A long wall will have several soldiers guarding it and if an enemy should chance by, all a soldier had to do in his guarding post was light up the furnace. The fire would alert the next post, the soldier in the next post would light up his furnace, and the third soldier would see it, and so on and so forth. (watching the first part of Mulan will help you understand) Anyhow, the Mongols forbade the Chinese to have any light at night for fear that it might be used as signals. The Chinese learned to live by the light of the moon until they finally hit on the idea of sending messages in mooncakes.

So there you have it-I hope I provided a few moments of entertainment for those of my friends stressing over stuff in your life right now. God knows we all need a little bit of that. I don't know-I've always liked my own culture, and looking up information on the Mooncake/Lantern Festival seemed as good a de-stresser as any. Now if only I had meself a li'l lantern and a mooncake to munch on....

as above, so below.

Around; just not here.

In which Deanie craves calorie-filled chinese delicacies and fire hazards.