September 22nd was the Autumn Moon Festival, celebrated by eating moon cakes. A moon cake is given to friends and is a pastry with a variety of fillings. I’ve tried a few and some have lotus or bean paste inside. One had a honey, brown sugar gummy bear texture. They taste somewhat like a Fig Newton. Cute as a button, they have Chinese characters stamped on top.
The Moon Festival is a myth about Chang’e the goddess of the moon, and once a year she can come down from the moon to visit her husband and family. The Chinese regard this day as a national holiday and to see the reflection of the moon in the lake is a good omen. We went to Confucius Temple (pronounced Foo Zi Meow!) last night to view the moonlight, but alais the mist and rain clouded our vision of the moon. The temple was an education in Confucius (Kong Zi) philosophy from 500BC. The book I purchased discusses his personal and governmental morality along with justice and social relationships. He is a leader in the teaching of benevolence. As stated in my book; “If the emperor is fond of benevolence, he will be unconquerable all over the world. Now some princes want to be unconquerable in the world, but do not implement benevolence. That’s just as someone feels extremely hot but is unwilling to take a bath.” The lesson goes on to state if a person has the desire to help others, he will be kindly looked upon. Is this not a lesson we should be teaching our children? What a peaceful world it would be to have kind feelings or express goodwill toward one another. Have I become a student of Master Confucius or maybe I was a student in a past life?
The temple was full of interesting legends, history, sculptures, stelai, one large drum, a gong bell and different presentations. It was a plethora of information.
I so enjoyed the musical presentation by a Chinese singing, bell ringing and instrument playing team of Chinese ritually dressed young people. The music was typically old style Chinese and I wanted a CD, where upon Alice said I could find this kind of music in the disc stores around town. We also saw a stick puppet presentation by puppiters behind a sheet illuminating the figures through it. Now this was clever to watch as the wolf attacked the man and the tree spoke philosophy with a mouth. I believe this is for children, but the adults were mesmerized including Alice and me. Sawyer smiled and laughed. If you saw the movie “Karate Kid” released this summer, you will remember the puppet drama is the same.
We walked up and down the streets by the temple where vendors sold trinkets, which I bought many of. The brightly lit stores lined the street full of people with umbrellas and wet feet. It was a delight to behold.
