San Francisco Chinatown's Moon Festival

Any self-respecting San Franciscan has witnessed Chinatown's Chinese New Year Parade, in person or at least on TV. But probably not the Moon Festival. Also known as Mid Autumn Festival, the Chinese holiday with its hockey-puckish moon cake is relatively obscure in SF, even though Chinese tradition ranks it up with the New Year.

Moon Festival is on Sept. 12, 2011, or the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar. The moon is said to be brighter and rounder than any other night. Families reunite to celebrate the harvest and the Moon Goddess and share moon cake, which was a secret weapon in a historic rebellion.

San Francisco Chinatown's Autumn Moon Festival on Sept. 10 and 11, 2011, includes lion dance, martial arts, acrobatic, drumming, jazz and traditional Chinese music performances and an appearance by the Moon Goddess. Grant Avenue will be a bazaar offering moon cake, food and Chinese arts and crafts. There will also be a balloon sculpture contest and a luncheon with a historic film.

The Moon Festival is on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which in 2011 falls on Sept. 12. In Chinese cosmology the moon is a symbol of yin, or the feminine (the sun is yang, masculine). According to one common Chinese legend, a beautiful woman, Chang E, swallowed a pill of immortality and flew to the moon, where she’s reigned as the Moon Goddess ever since.

The Moon Festival is also important in China’s ancient history. Opponents of the then-Mongol government had special cakes made in honor of the Moon Festival--cakes that contained secret messages alerting people about the planned coup. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels attacked and overthrew the Mongols, which ushered in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).

Because the Moon Festival is also associated with the bountifulness of the fall harvest, it is an important occasion for families to reunite (similar to Thanksgiving), admire the full moon and share moon cake.

Moon cakes are round and dense, symbols of the festival’s fat, full moon. The moon cakes most commonly found in San Francisco are the shape and about the size of hockey pucks, with shiny, golden brown crusts encasing compact disks of mashed beans or lotus seeds and perhaps egg yolk. Most people (including Chinese) don’t really like such traditional varieties; moon cakes are the Chinese version of Christmastime tinned fruitcakes.

Autumn Moon Festival
Sept. 10 & 11, at 11 am-6 pm
On Grant Avenue between California and Broadway, and on Pacific between Stockton and Kearny streets. Free.