Moon Festival
Little Sesame woke with great excitement on the 15th day of the eighth month. It was the Mid-Autumn Festival. The lantern parade was going to be fun, and the food would be yummy.
After breakfast, Ma called home the chickens and ducks and Grandpa helped her kill a big rooster and a huge duck.
Little Sesame’s five-year-old brother Bright cheered as he watched Ma lift the animals up and down in the boiling water until they were well-scalded.
When Ma took them out of the water, Little Sesame cheered, “Ma, I want to help!”
“Me, too,” Bright said.
Ma let the eager children help her rub and pluck the feathers off. Then they followed Ma to the stream where she washed the rooster and duck.
#
Ba returned midmorning, bringing with him mooncakes, tofu, brown sugar, wine, candles, incense sticks, and paper money. He purchased all these with the money from selling two big roosters and a wagon full of fresh vegetables and fruits. He hauled these things into town to sell long before his family awoke.
“Ba! Ba!” Little Sesame and Bright hugged Ba’s legs as if they hadn’t seen their father for an age.
“I know what my little sheep and little rooster were expecting,” Ba beamed, giving each of them a pat on the head. He called the kids sheep and rooster since Little Sesame was born in the sheep year and Bright in the rooster year.
The children dug their hands inside Ba’s shirt pocket and fished out some hard candy.
“I prefer lollipops, but I’m happy with the hard candy, too,” Bright whispered to Little Sesame.
“Me, too,” she whispered back.
The children enjoyed the candy and smiled contentedly.
Ba hurried through his breakfast and then left for work.
Mid-Autumn Festival was not an official holiday, so the male workers still had to participate in collective labor. However, all the female workers were allowed to take the day off to prepare for the festival feast.
#
The Mid-Autumn Festival was an important festival. Team Two, the team Little Sesame’s family belonged to, killed a big hog and was going to distribute the meat to its members. On their way to the team headquarters to pick up the pork, Little Sesame and Bright ran and skipped before Ma. Like her kids, Ma was in good spirits. She sang a happy song and swung the little basket in her hand back and forth.
Many people were already at the team headquarters. Ma joined the other women chatting in groups.
When the butcher carried the 200-pound whitened carcass of the hog over to the butchering board, everybody knew it was time to divide it for each family. Everybody gathered around it and pointed out which part they wanted.
When the women saw the butcher's helper coming with a can, they all rushed to him like a swarm of bees. Each family had to draw a number from the can. Each number was written on a small piece of paper, which had been folded, so no one could see the number she was drawing, and each family would receive the meat in ascending order. The butcher would cut the meat from the neck to the hind legs. That would be fair when no one could choose which part she wanted. Number one would get the first section of the hog, number two would go next, and so on.
“You two are my lucky stars,” Ma told her kids. “Little Sesame, you draw Grandma’s number, and Bright, you draw ours.”
Little Sesame and Bright handed Ma what they drew, and Ma announced, “8 and 13.”
Since the size of the portion for each family was distributed according to the family size, no one could exactly figure out which part of the pork would be her portion even if she had her number already.
“I want this part,” one woman pointed at the section with a lot of fat.
“I want that one, too,” another woman hoped. “It would make the bamboo shoots tastier.”
Everybody waited anxiously for her turn. When her portion was fat, she would yell or jump up and down for joy, like a little kid, and then would happily take her portion straight home. When her portion was lean, she would stay there, watching silently until the end, to see if the butcher had anything left for exchange.
Ma was happy with the portions she received and headed home straight.
On the way home, Bright and Little Sesame sang songs they learned from their big sister Melody. When they ran out of songs they knew, they made up their own song:
We like mooncakes. We like mooncakes.
We are going to eat mooncakes tonight, tonight, tonight.
We are going to parade tonight, tonight, tonight.
We are going to have fun tonight, tonight, tonight.
After lunch, Ba had to take some gifts to visit his mother-in-law, Wai-po. It was their custom to do so in the countryside––sons-in-law thank their mothers-in-law for the fine wife they have. While Ba went to pick the biggest pumpkin from the garden, Ma called the chickens home and caught the biggest rooster. She tied its legs and wings up and put it in a basket. Ba carried the pumpkin, the rooster, two thirds of their pork, some eggs, some chestnuts, and one package of mooncakes to visit his mother-in-law.
In the meantime, Ma set off to visit Auntie Benzi with one package of mooncakes and the remainder of the pork. Auntie Benzi was Ma’s best friend and her childhood neighbor. Auntie Benzi was from the city. She lived among the Team Two members but didn’t belong to any teams, so she didn’t have pork and had to buy everything for the festival. Little Sesame didn't say anything, but she felt sad to see that there was no pork left for themselves. Always knowing what her daughter was thinking, Ma soothed Little Sesame, “Don’t worry, Treasure. You will have pork to eat—we are going to eat Grandma's pork.”
When the sun went down under the mountains, Little Sesame and her big sister headed home with wild berries. Their mother was still busy cooking dinner. Without being asked, they filled the big wooden tub with water and bathed themselves in the tub in their own room.
Little Sesame felt comfortable with her clean clothes on. She skipped happily.
While Ma was bathing Bright, Little Sesame followed Big Sister and sneaked into the kitchen to see what Ma had cooked for dinner. They saw only some vegetables on the clay stove. The good dishes were kept warm in the steamer in the biggest wok of the three. In the middle-sized wok was cooked rice. Delicious-smelling chicken was still cooking in the small-sized wok.
Big Sister looked around. Nobody was in sight. Her face had a satisfied gleam. Quickly and quietly, she grabbed a pair of chopsticks, digging into the wok where the chicken was and coming up with her treasure. She did it twice and pocketed the pieces, then sneaked out to the sidewall, with Little Sesame following behind.
Fishing the chicken out of her pocket, Big Sister handed one piece to her younger sister and kept the other for herself. The chicken looked so delicious with its light-brown color, and it smelled so good. They hadn't had chicken for eight months, since the Spring Festival. Little Sesame had a desire to devour the piece of chicken, but she didn't dare. She handed it back to Big Sister and told her that they'd better not eat it; otherwise, their tongues would be cut off according to the World of Yin. Big Sister grabbed it without a word and ate it merrily. Little Sesame watched her big sister eat every mouthwatering bit off the bone.
After the chicken had traveled down to her stomach, Big Sister wiped her mouth with her sleeve and told Little Sesame something that surprised the younger girl. “What Ma has told us is a lie. She just wants to keep us from stealing food.”
#
A little later, seeing their grandfather carry a table over, Big Sister said, “Grandpa, do you need help?” But the grandfather asked Big Sister and Little Sesame to carry the benches from his living room to theirs. That meant Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle, and Cousin Clear were coming to have dinner with them, which was what they did on every festival.
Then, Grandma came and whispered something to Ma. But Ma said, "I don't think so. Let's wait a little later or the people will see and catch us." They were talking about ancestor worship.
Although the government forbade ancestor worship, the Lang family always took the risk whenever they celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival.
After it was completely dark, Grandma and Ma set the table, and Grandpa prepared the "paper money" for the ancestors. Ma sent her three young children to the private plot that was on the other side of the pond to tell their father and older brothers that dinner was ready.
The food on the dinner table looked wonderful and smelled delicious and made Little Sesame awfully hungry. By looking at the delicious dishes, her mouth kept watering. She couldn't take her eyes away from the dishes. She silently counted how many dishes there were. It seemed they had the same dishes every Mid-Autumn Festival, but she would never get tired of them. They had stir-fried fresh yellow eels with onions, steamed dried fish, stir-fried snails with ginger and garlic and red peppers, roasted duck, stir-fried pork with bamboo shoots, stewed chicken with chestnuts, stewed tofu with dried mushrooms, stir-fried eggs with chives, mooncakes, and plenty of vegetables.
Staring at the food, Little Sesame started to make plans. “I will touch none of the vegetables since I eat them every day. I don’t have much appetite for yellow eels and snails since I eat them once in a while. I may want a little egg with chives since we eat it occasionally. Bamboo shoots and chestnuts wouldn't interest me; but when they are cooked with meat, they taste good, so I may have a little. I will first eat pork and then chicken and then duck and then tofu. I also want some pork gravy to go with my rice. I shall not eat much rice because I need to save my stomach for the mooncakes.”
After the men changed into their clean clothes, Grandpa went outside with some lit incense sticks in his hands. All the family members lined up by age and walked outside to invite their ancestors. No one spoke a word, except for Big Sister. She sang loudly, “Ancestors, ancestors, please come get your gifts.” The adults hushed her, for they feared that the villagers would hear what she had sung and then send them to the village meeting to be criticized for engaging in a feudal superstition activity.
Grandpa stopped, he lowered his head to say something softly as he bowed, inviting the ancestors to come for dinner. Then they all bowed before returning home.
Grandpa carefully placed the joss sticks in the incense burner on the ancestor’s tablet, which was near the dinner table. The ancestor’s tablet was a long, tall, rose red, wooden table with elaborately carved dragons all over its sides. It was the finest piece of furniture that the Lang family owned. Many candles were burning on the tablet to represent the ancestors. Grandpa filled the small-sized rice bowls with wine and carefully laid them in front of the ancestors. He politely asked them to help themselves to the dishes.
After a while, Ba and Uncle took turns pouring a little bit more wine into the wine bowls and repeatedly asked the ancestors to make themselves at home. The wine bowls slowly filled up with more and more wine. When the bowls were full, it was time for the ancestors to have rice.
It took a long time for the ancestors to finish their meal. Little Sesame could neither see these visitors nor hear them. She also noticed that nothing had been eaten from the table. The dishes, the rice, and the mooncakes had never been touched.
But Ma assured Little Sesame that the ancestors were eating: “Since the ancestors are now spirits, they eat differently from living people. Their food is within the steam from the warm dishes. Although we cannot see them, we can feel their presence.”
Little Sesame knew that her family still felt the influence of these relatives who had lived before them. She watched her parents as they sat peacefully and patiently, waiting in respect for the ancestors.
“Ma, I don’t believe you,” Big Sister snapped impatiently, for she couldn’t wait for dinner to start. “First of all, there is no steam from the mooncakes and the wine, for they are cold. And you tell the stories differently each time. You told us that after people died, their souls would be taken to judgment. The super good people’s souls would go to heaven. The good people’s souls would reincarnate into humans. Other people’s souls would reincarnate into animals twelve times before they could reincarnate into humans again. The evil people’s souls would be tortured in hell. According to your reincarnation story, our ancestors’ souls wouldn’t be sitting here eating dinner. I will only believe you if you can prove the ancestors are here at the dinner table.”
Grandpa and Ba hushed for Big Sister to be quiet, or she would upset the ancestors. Second Brother and Cousin Clear smiled at Ma with their eyes enlarged, expecting to see some proof.
Ma stated flatly, “Someone once told me that a child of seven or younger would be able to see the ghosts eating. A bamboo colander and a pair of new cloth slippers are all the tools needed. The child would have to wear the bamboo colander on his or her head with the pair of new cloth slippers placed on the top of the colander.”
Big Sister and the teenage boys were excited to hear this. They urged Little Sesame to see the ancestors with her very eyes and then to describe to them what she had seen. Little Sesame was willing to run this experiment, too. So, quickly, Big Sister found a bamboo colander, and Second Brother took out his new cloth slippers Ma made for him to wear during Spring Festival.
But Grandpa and Ba wouldn’t let the children perform the experiment. Grandpa went on to explain: “First, your unfaithful behaviors will upset our honorable and respectable ancestors. Second, Little Sesame will be horrified to see the way ancestors eat. It is said that they eat from mouth in and nostrils out.”
Little Sesame wondered how someone could eat mouth in and nostrils out. She didn’t see any food on the table that would be small enough to get out through the nostrils, and they didn’t serve the ancestors any noodles. Soon after, Little Sesame imagined the presence of the ancestors. They sat at the table eating and talking and laughing. The sight was horrifying. They were ugly, dirty, old women and men who had no teeth, and the food they put into their mouths soon became round worms as it came out from their nostrils; whenever they talked or laughed, the food dribbled out of their mouths and back into their rice bowls. Little Sesame rubbed her eyes and shook her head, and then she found that all the ghosts had disappeared at once. As she looked at her parents, they were still sitting on the chairs peacefully and patiently, waiting in respect for the ancestors.
Finally, Grandpa burned the "paper money" because the ancestors could use only money that was burned, that went up in smoke. Just as the ancestors themselves had disappeared and were no longer visible to the living people, so was the money no longer visible. Each person in the family took a turn to crouch before the table and thank the ancestors and ask them to bless the family to be healthy, happy, and peaceful.
Then, Grandpa nodded to the ancestors, as if the ghosts were communicating with him. He turned to his family and solemnly reminded them, “Being morally virtuous is the best route to inner peace. If we do not cheat or steal, we don’t need to worry about getting caught or being looked down on by others. We will have more friends if we are nice to others. We will make ourselves more lovable and trustworthy to the ones we love if we are highly moral. Treating others well and good behavior will bring the opportunity for personal fulfillment both now and after this earthly life.”
When they believed the ancestors had gone, it was time for the living family members to have their dinner. After putting away the ancestors’ rice and wine, they all went to sit in their seats, with the grandparents at the head of the table in front of the ancestral table. Since Big Sister, Little Sesame, and Bright were small children, they sat at another table, with Big Sister at the head.
There were no dishes at the small children’s table. The three children took their bowls to their mother to ask for whatever food they liked. Little Sesame had two bowls—a rice bowl and an empty bowl. First, she asked Ma to moisten her rice with lots of gravy. Then, she had the empty bowl filled with food she wanted. As for Big Sister, first, she asked for the feet and neck and head of the chicken and duck. Bright ate whatever Ma gave to him and returned whatever he didn’t like.
“Melody, why do you always like to eat bony things?” Uncle wanted to know.
Big Sister responded with an easy shrug and didn’t even bother to raise her head or pay any respect to her father’s younger brother; she was much too busy eating.
Little Sesame thought Uncle would also ask her why she liked gravy and chicken wings, so she wracked her brain for possible answers. But Uncle didn't ask her.
There were some Chinese sayings Little Sesame had heard: a lady who wants to have a beautiful long neck must eat lots of bird’s necks; a person who eats animal brains will become smarter; a person who eats a lot of bird’s wings will be able to run as fast as a bird flying; and a person who likes gravy usually is a generous person. When it came to the food, Little Sesame liked the gravy simply because it tasted good, but she liked wings because she wanted to run fast. She wished to be able to run very fast in an emergency, such as encountering a hungry wolf.
The children ate quietly and listened while the adults chatted as they ate. It was a treat to have so many wonderful, special dishes.
Grandpa kept saying how delicious the food was and he praised Ma for being such a great cook. Ma replied modestly, “No, no, no, Grandpa. I am a terrible cook. The food tastes awful.”
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After dinner, everyone gathered around the table to hear stories. Although Grandpa, Ba, Ma, Second Brother, and Uncle all told good stories, Second Brother was Little Sesame’s favorite storyteller. His voice throbbed with emotion to create vivid scenes in his listeners’ imagination. When a hero and handsome man entered the story and talked, Second Brother raised his voice and erected his chest. With authoritative characters, Second Brother slapped the table with furrowed brows or steeled eyes. With wounded characters, he wrinkled his forehead and lowered his voice. He also wrinkled his forehead with traitorous characters.
When story time was over, the children picked up the paper lanterns that Grandma and Ma had made and the watermelon lanterns that Grandpa and Ba and Uncle had carved. They took these all outside. While Grandpa lit a small pile of half-dried mosquito plants (the smoke of which could chase the mosquitoes away), Ba and Ma helped the children light the paper lanterns with dragons and boats and rabbits painted on them. Ma hung the lighted paper lanterns on the wall.
They then placed candles in the bottoms of the watermelon lanterns, and fastened a long, stout bamboo stick through the big carved stars on the sides near the top of each melon. After the candles were lighted, the children each held one end of the bamboo stick. The watermelon lanterns were safe and wouldn’t cause a fire, no matter how hard they swung the lanterns on the sticks which they used as handles. With much giggling and laughter, they paraded around the house.
Afterwards, they followed the footpaths beside the house through the hilly tea plantation. On the top of the hill, they could see many other glowing lanterns bobbing through the distant darkness. Little Sesame and her brothers and sister shouted to the other children, and they shouted back, until echoes of joy ricocheted back and forth across the hills. It was an exciting parade. And it was beautiful to see all the colorful lighted lanterns moving up the hill and then down again.
When they returned to the house, the children joined the adults in sitting outside and enjoying the full moon. Then Ma served fruit and tea and the long-awaited mooncakes. While enjoying the treats, Second Brother and Cousin Clear began to play their huqin and flute to entertain the family. All the family members liked to sit and listen to them and sometimes sing along. The beautiful music made the night even more magical.
As the family sat together in the cooling air, they gazed at the beautiful, brilliant moon. Ma reminded them that the goddess of the harvest was watching over them at that very moment. Little Sesame looked at the full moon and, quietly in her heart, gave compliments to the goddess.
