Full Harvest Moon and Asia Moon Festivall

 

The full Harvest Moon rises this evening -- obliquely, close to the horizon -- and remains big and bright for a long time, giving extra light to harvesters. This moon is called Atchiutchutin, the After-Harvest moon, by the Kalapuya of our area, because the big harvest in our area comes earlier. We are enjoying the first weeks of the rainy season, a profound time of transition for me.

We are now at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon.

Today is also the start of Chung Ch’iu, the 3-day Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. It's a happy and beautiful Asian family celebration that comes each year at the time of the full moon in September or October.

Agenda for today:
1. Take a vision walk
2. Celebrate balance

3. Make moon cakes
4. Have a moon-viewing party

1. Take a vision walk:

The full moon shines a bright light on everything, and I might experience intuitive and creative breakthroughs. I might be surprised by the clarity of my insights.

I celebrate each new day and the Truth it brings. But I am happily aware that I will never have an orderly shelf-full of the Truth. Truth is a mystery - it hides in the shadows, revealed to me one bit at a time. I am so happy to know this, because it releases me from the need to have all the answers. My real work is to ask all the questions.

Today I'm going to settle into silence and access my intuitive mind - my connection to the Creator and the Inner Guide -  and seek a leading of the spirit with an open mind and heart, using these queries:

What areas of my life are in balance (in unity) with the universe? How can I celebrate that?

In what areas am I out of balance (work/rest, mental/physical, self/community...) and how might I get back into balance?

Consider the Great Ultimate, where all energy is replenished; How have I learned to draw from that well of peace and renewal?

2. Celebrate Balance:

My theme ​this month ​is Balance: I'm not speaking about the illusion of balancing your work and your life - like a juggling trick. This is the balance of Taoism's Tai Chi, the circle around and the point between yin and yang energies. The image is of the celestial ridgepole, the place of ultimate equilibrium, where chi is always available, where energy is replenished and then moves on. 

The center is the place where my soul lives; it touches all other areas of my life. My life flows around this solid base. I think about balance as "being in unity with the universe": The feeling that I can let go of my opinions and wants, and let God work through me, and feel calm and centered in that.

Today I remind myself of my intentions, and then celebrate my accomplishments and reaffirm this theme for the next two weeks. Today I am ready to celebrate balance in three ways:

1. Work "Hands-On" with art and with a house project, to balance all this heady stuff. 

2. Take a long bath and a nap to balance all the working.

3. Celebrate with friends tonight, sharing our joys and struggles, and howling together at the moon!

3. Make moon cakes:

Normally on this blog I would give you an authentic Chinese recipe, but this simplified recipe has sentimental tradition in our family.

When my children were young, the city library hosted a Moon Festival event every fall, with telescopes, Asian writing and crafts, hot tea, and all the moon cakes you could eat. We went every year. The bakery that made the moon cakes gave us this recipe, an Americanized version, and that's the recipe my family has made and loved for 30 years.

For a similar but more complex and traditional recipe see Food52.

Ingredients:

• sweet red bean paste
• 1 c. flour
• 1/2 c. butter
• 1/4 c. sour cream
• egg yolk
• red food color (optional)

Makes 8 cakes-
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. 


Make 8 large marbles of bean paste, and put them in the freezer to chill. (You might need flour on your hands.)

2. Mix together the flour and butter until crumbly. Mix in the sour cream; stir until dough forms into a ball.

3. Knead the dough a few times then divide into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball then pat to flatten into thick 5-inch circles.

4. Put a marble of sweet red bean paste in the center of each circle, fold the edges up over the filling, and seal. Shape each into a fat round moon. If you have a mold, you can press it in now, but it's not necessary.

5. Place moon cakes on an un-greased pan. Whisk an egg yolk with a little water until smooth and spoon a little over each moon cake. Dot the center with a chopstick dipped in red food coloring (for good luck). Bake for 15 minutes at 350ºF.

6. Remove the moon cakes from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes.

4. Have a Moon Viewing Party:

In China, the big event is a picnic outside to admire the moon, with tea, moon cakes and round fruits (a symbol of family unity).

The festival continues for three days with games and fun. During this time it is believed that flowers fall from the moon and anyone sharp-eyed enough to see them will have very good fortune.

After moon viewing, we sometimes write poetry to show our appreciation of the moon.