Four months to go!

Would you have guessed that today starts the 8th solar term, "Grain Full" or "Grain Fills"? You may want to read more about Solar Terms.

Spring arrived on March 20, 2007 for the Northern Hemisphere this year and started the half-month called Chunfen(春分, Spring Equinox).

Happy 4704!

May this Year of the Fire Pig be filled with wonder and learning.

The Pumpkin Circle

If your child's teacher had students plant seeds in the spring or is planning to talk about Harvest, Halloween pumpkins, Thanksgiving - there is an entrance point for you to talk about Mid-Autumn Festival! You can "plant a seed" in spring yourself by mentioning it to the teacher - even if your child will be in a different class the next year. Maybe your child could visit the "old" class in the fall and help you present something to them? Few schools would have trouble with this - as long as you coordinate the time with both teachers.

The Pumpkin Circle by George Levenson is a lovely picture book that could be used to discuss planting, growing or harvest. Suggested pumpkin seed classroom activities, educational standards, pictures from the book, and clip from the video (narrated by Danny Glover) are on The Pumpkin Circle website. Spring is coming - and they have a $1 pumpkin seed offer for educators on their site too.

Filmmaker, George Levenson won awards for his Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. You can see clips of that and of his companion video, How to Fold A Paper Crane at the Sadako Film Project. To complete a crane, read the full directions for how to fold a paper crane.

See Musical Mandarin for more information on Paper-folding.

Tools: Moon Phase & Cloudy Skies

Chris Cobb has a moon phases calculator that you can get from Tuft's Wright Center. This is not the same as the BlueMarmot calculator I previously mentioned in See "today's moon phase".

I have not used it but present it as an option for you. I am also excited about the Clear Sky Clock using data from Canada that I learned about from the Wright Center. There have been far too many cloudy Autumn Moon Festival nights here. To learn more, and see how to set it for your location visit http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/

Woman in the Moon pictures

George Leonberger has created a Woman in the Moon page for the Wright Center! I have never seen her picture so clearly. I have no idea whether this Chang Er that the Chinese have seen for years.

Times of moonrise, transit and moonset

I just found an interesting resource for the "Times of moonrise, transit and moonset during the Mid-Autumn festival period". The Hong Kong observatory has almanac pages set up for 2006, 2007, and 2008. To see last year's times, see http://www.hko.gov.hk/gts/astron2006/mid-aut_e.htm

2006 Mid-Autumn Festival photos

For Singapore (at least I think it is 2006), see: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival_in_Singapore

Importance of harvesting corn

Today's National Geographic photo of the day was shot on assignment for, but not published in "A Chinese Emperor's Army for Eternity," August 1992, National Geographic magazine.

Not the only "one a day" website that has photographs of China once in a while.

I also like these shots of the Great Wall of China and the Inner Gorge from Earth Science Picture of the Day but China pictures are rare there.

Mid-Autumn Festival cards

(Next year we can remember to actually send them.)

This for all of those who, like me, had a cloudy sky last night and could not see the full moon:
http://www.123greetings.com/events/moon_festival_taiwan/moon4.html

Tonight's Full Moon 12 Percent Bigger

While the moon is always round and beautiful on 8/15 (lunar), about 50% of the time, the full moon is actually on another day. This year the full moon is on the day: October 6th at 11:13 p.m. EDT in the USA. The native American name is the "Full Harvet Moon". According to Robert Roy Britt, space.com's Senior Science Writer, Tonight's Full Moon is 12 Percent Bigger.

Consider making it a special night with a family dinner. Let the children out to see it - it's not a school night this year. This full moon really does seem brighter than any other to me.

And if you want to involve the school, read on for ideas. Or share what you have done.

For more about the moon, you may want to look at Wikipedia, including their piece on Full Moons or at Imaginova's Space site including the Skywatcher's Guide to the Moon and Top 10 Cool Moon Facts. (My favorites are 1, 5 and 9.) Read the Farmers' Almanac for more on Native American Moon Names.

Guzheng music - Midnight Autumn Song

Sound of China Guzheng Music Promotion Center (chinesezither.net) has lots of information and guzheng (Chinese zither) music. Just visit the site, or scroll down on their homepage and "click" on Midnight Autumn Song to hear. Connie says it is "a beautiful, traditional Chinese song played by Carol Chang on the guzheng." Different songs are probably highlighted during the year.

This site is dedicated to promoting Guzheng and spreading Chinese music. Learn more about the gu zheng, or buy CDs, DVDs, and textbooks on their page. While there are zither masters, you can learn to play a song on the gu zheng in one afternoon.

Thanks to Connie from FCC for this one!

Classical Chinese poems about autumn

Quite a bit of work went organizing these classical Chinese poems on autumn, mostly from the Tang dynasty. When you sleect a poem, the Chinese (traditional or simplifed characters, your choice), pinyin, and an English translation all appear. From the Chinese-poems.com homepage, you can also learn more about the authors and search other peoms they have collected.

From their home page "Li Bai (李白)[701- 762] is the most popular Chinese poet, with a distinctively Romantic style." This is their translation of Autumn Air.

Autumn Air by Li Bai

The autumn air is clear,
The autumn moon is bright.
Fallen leaves gather and scatter,
The jackdaw perches and starts anew.
We think of each other- when will we meet?
This hour, this night, my feelings are hard.

I don't know who translated this, my favorite Autumn Moon poem.

The Mid-Autumn Moon by Li Qiao

A full moon hangs high in the chilly sky,
All say it's the same everywhere, round and bright.
But how can one be sure thousands of li away
Wind and perhaps rain may not be marring the night?

Autumn Moon is Teacher's Day in Taiwan

Somehow tomorrow we are also stopping in at my daughter's "old" school to drop off some mooncakes, and we will be leaving something on my Chinese tutor's door as well.

Huang Lao-shi is responsible for any good in my Mandarin. (In more ways than one. She only taught 'nice' words and I never learned how to say anything like "bad", "dirty", or "rude".) The mistakes are my own. Perhaps she is also the reason that my daughter has such lovely tones, although she was never formally her teacher. We certainly believe that my daughter did not learn her tones from this household.

Food, glorious food

Mooncakes, of course.

Round like the moon foods, including pomelos.

To drink, tea or wine for the adults.

Modern festive "bonfire"

I have not tried this myself, yet, but some youngsters think they have found a fun, modern replacement for an older, dangerous Hong Kong tradition - a Coke and mentos geyser. If you have not heard of a mentos eruption you might not know what to do with a 2 liter bottle of (preferrably diet) Coke and an uncloated Mentos. If you want to sneak in some science, the best description I know is from the TV show Mythbusters. Some young friend Sean recommends you not think about trying this combination in your mouth.

Consider joining in the first annual year of this and your "older chlidren" might find the festival cool again.

From the MidAutum Splash Off website - "In a deeper cultural context, for the longest time, teenagers and young adults, classmates, good friends and families in Hong Kong used to celebrate Mid Autumn with festive bonfire, a much endeared tradition that filled our childhood with sweet memories. The festive bonfires are quite uniquely made by melting a hot pot of candles outdoor, bring the wax to boiling point, then create a 3 to 6 foot tall fire pole by splashing water on top of the wax. For public safety reasons, following one incident of severe burn, the festive bonfire has been banned since 2002.

Many of us bonfire enthusiasts would love to bring an activity of spilling something high in the sky, something that highlights the climaxes of the festival (instead of continual moon observing), an interesting excuse to gather the loved ones, while doing it safe! A group of youngers, after watching the Coke/Mentos video online, felt it to be a perfectly fitting replacement we've been searching for years. "

They plan to update Wikipedia on this too.

Autumn Mooncakes

Mooncakes have a long history of their own. They started as honey cakes in the 3^rd century BC. Now there are many kinds, and their shapes and fillings are seemingly endless. However, there are two or three main types of mooncakes. The classic mooncake is made in a mold, contains egg, and has a golden or dark crust. (Some now call them Cantonese style.) Based on ancient literary works, they evolved into their current form between the 6^th and 11^th centuries. There is a character or design on the top. The inside can be a paste, fruit-cakey or even have meat in it. Perhaps lotus-seed paste was the original but now, due to cost, red bean paste seems to be more common. Shanghai-style mooncakes have a flaky crust (that can still be hard to bite) and usually fewer ingredients. Traditionally the yolk was duck, but now it may be chicken or duck. Vegan mooncakes, even vegan, peanut and nut-free mooncakes, are available. Most Shanghai-style mooncakes fit in this category. Mooncakes are often packed 4 or 8 to a box and each should fit in the palm of your hand. The ~4 inch diameter ones can be cut into 8 pieces for distribution at school. They are very rich and not everyone will like them.

Most of the traditional recipes use lard or peanut oil and take days to complete, as the steps include resting the dough 5 hours or draining the bean paste filling overnight. You can also buy mooncakes from many Asian grocery stores, or mail order, probably at least 2 weeks in advance. Many stores only mail mooncake orders once a week.

For more on mooncakes, also look at Wikipedia's article.

RECIPES
There are two different kid-approved recipes here, adapted to do done in an afternoon, instead of five days. Jennifer's is closer to the traditional. If you want to make a moon-ish cookie which is safer for the youngest and more likely to work with children with allergies, try this egg-free and dairy-free cookie recipe that should satisfy any schools anti-allergy policies. It is similar to German “thumbprint” cookies. I recommend always checking for allergies before offering any food to children.

Jennifer's Autumn Moon Cake recipe

Jennifer adapted this to be kid approved and not too time consuming. However, it does include dairy products (and coconut) so it might not work in all schools due to allergy concerns. At least the dough is similar to the recipe on Yan Can Cook. Or, go to the egg-free, dairy-free recipe if you need it.

Autumn Moon Cakes
Crust
4 c all purpose flour
3/4 c dried milk powder (whiz in Cuisinart to fine powder if lumpy)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 1/4 c sugar
3/4 c unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temp
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Filling
1 12 oz jar apricot preserves
1 c chopped pitted dates
1 c flaked sweetened coconut
3/4 c raisins

Glaze, whisk together
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp. water

1. Sift flour, milk powder, baking powder, salt, set aside. Break eggs in large mixing bowl, add sugar and beat until mixture "ribbons" off the beaters, approx. 5 mins. Add melted butter, vanilla and dry ingredients to egg mixture. Mix to rough dough, turn out on lightly floured surface and knead briefly to smooth dough. Form dough into long roll and cut into 20 pieces.

2. Mix ingredients for filling (I found that this filling was more than enough and used what was left over for muffins)

3. Preheat to 375. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or use silpat or parchment. Press 1 dough piece into a 3-4 inch circle making edges thinner and center thicker. Spoon a portion of filling into the center, about a Tbsp. Gather up edges of dough to enclose filling and pinch edges together to seal. Roll cake in a ball, flatten to a 3 in. round and press into a lightly floured moon cake mold (or a simple round cookie cutter).

You will need to refrigerate the dough and then refrigerate the formed cakes to hold any design from a moon cake mold. I used some decorative copper molds, but if the design isn’t deeply incised, it will not hold. This is the most time consuming part of the recipe - I don't preheat until I've made half the cakes.

4. Arrange cakes about 1 inch apart on baking sheet. Brush surface of cakes with egg/water glaze. You could also paint a design with red vegetable food coloring if you don’t over do the egg wash. Bake for 20 minutes ...maybe even 18 mins. until golden brown.

5. Variations – use chopped ginger to replace ¼ cup raisins and ginger puree to replace apricot preserves. Not traditional but really yummy and spicy.

6. If you hate coconut, replace with nuts, finely chopped but not ground.

Thanks Jennifer!

Story and handout

A colorfully illustrated story of the Autumn Moon Festival can be yours to use with your family or or at school.

The 8 page pdf file with lots of pictures is based on the good work of Terry Garlock, who gave me permission to revise and make my own version. I also have a two page (or 2 sides on one page) handout that can be used for educational purposes if you are interested.

Just email me for a copy at mus-mandarin@wubison.com and I will email you the .pdf files.

Need a Lunar Calendar?

I have a pdf file that you can print showing the months of the year and how the phases of the moon line up with it.

Just email mus-mandarin@wubison.com and let me know if you need one.

Almost a week away. . .

I can not believe that Mid-Autumn Festival is just a bit over one week away. This year 8/15 (lunar) falls on October 6, 2006. Are you ready? Our house is not . . . yet.