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PETALING JAYA: The moon is very important to many cultures. For the Chinese, it is a symbol of peace, prosperity, kindness and family reunion.
It is also said to be the home of the goddess Chang Er, who saved humanity from her husband’s tyranny by drinking an elixir that she had stolen from a fairy. However, all that symbolism lost some of its magic when American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edward Aldrin landed on the moon in July 1969 and revealed that it was barren.
There was no sign of Chang Er.
However, the Chinese continue to celebrate the Mooncake Festival on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, but it has become more of a commercial enterprise than a cultural event.
For younger Chinese, like Alexandra Chong Pei En, the reason for observing the annual festival has become superficial.
“My brothers and I used to visit my paternal grandparents for dinner on the day of the festival every year,” he said.
“While the adults sat for tea, we children played with our paper lanterns and gorged ourselves on moon cakes,” she said. “It was a time when the family got together for dinner and the house was filled with laughter.”
Chong, who is a staff nurse, said her grandmother would seat the children and tell them the story of Chang Er and her husband Hou Yi. That was the highlight of the night.
“When I was a child, I often wondered about the myth and how the legend came about,” she said.
But since moving out on her own, Chong stopped celebrating the festival. “It is so commercialized now. It has lost its meaning. “
Consulting coordinator Dorothy Low takes an even more cynical view of the Mooncake Festival.
“When I was a kid, the festival meant a lot of fun, but now as an adult, I don’t see its meaning,” he said.
He also mocked the symbolism of the family reunion. “When you and your parents still live under the same roof, there is no separation, so there is no need for a reunion,” he said.
As far as she’s concerned, today’s Mooncake Festival is purely a capitalist commodity.
“My family spends a lot of money buying moon cakes to give as gifts. It has become a formality, ”she said.
English teacher Lim Min Yi said she is aware of the festival’s significance, but stopped celebrating it after her father passed away.
“The festival was a symbol of reunion, but without my father, there is no reunion.”
However, she still meets her mother and brother to savor mooncakes during the festival.
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