Worshipping the Moon. The Mid Autumn Festival.

Chang-e flying to the moon.
(Painting by Ren Shuai Ying (任率英), 1955.
Licensed under Public Domain.)

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Han calendar - essentially the night of a full moon - which falls near the Autumnal Equinox (on a day between September 8 and October 7 on the Gregorian calendar).  In 2016, the 15th day of the eighth month of the Han calendar falls on September 15th of the Gregorian Calendar.

Chuseok, the Korean autumn harvest festival, is also held on the same day.  While I could have stayed back in Korea to experience how Koreans celebrate the moon, I'm choosing to head to Hong Kong instead.

For Chinese, the Mid-Autumn festival is second in popularity to the Spring Festival aka Chinese New Year.  It's a big deal and I couldn't imagine being so close to Hong Kong and not going there to celebrate it!  I could have gone to mainland China but as a Chinese of Cantonese descent, Hong Kong is the place for me.  I've not celebrated the festival since I was a child growing up in Malaysia and am thrilled to get to experience it as an adult! 

The Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival dates back over 3,000 years, to moon worshiping in the Shang Dynasty (1600–1046 BC). Ancient Chinese emperors worshiped the harvest moon at Mid-Autumn, as they believed that the practice would bring them a plentiful harvest the next year.  At it's heart, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a harvest festival.

The festival is intricately linked to the legend of Chang'e (or Chang-o) who is the mythical Moon Goddess of Immortality and her husband, an archer named Yi. There are many tales about Chang'e but at least two that lay claim as the one behind the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Moo the Hanwoo.

A plate of Hanwoo beef served up at a restaurant called Cheonja Maru in Changwon.
We might just have to figure out how to get to this place!
 (Photo from Changwon city official blog in Korea.)

Beef. I am a beef eater and if the ratio of beef versus pork or chicken sold in Korean supermarket is any indication, Koreans love beef too!

Hanwoo (also Han-u, Hanu) are cattle indigenous to Korea.  They are believed to originate from taurine (European heritage) cattle, sharing the same origins as Japanese Wagyu.  But natural cross breeding with zebu cattle that migrated to the Korean peninsula through North China has created a uniquely Korean breed of cattle.  Even though Korean cattle are generally known as Hanwoo, the name applies to the  most common type which has a brown colored coat. 

Korean cattle have been raised in the Korean Peninsula since as far back as 2,000 BC.  They were raised primarily for draft and occasionally for sacrificial rites.  It has only been since 1979 that Hanwoo has been bred as beef cattle.  Almost all of the beef cattle population in South Korea is Hanwoo and breeding it requires attention to pedigree. The Korea Animal Improvement Association is the only organization approved by the state to register and evaluate pure-bred Hanwoo cattle.

Take Me Out to the (Korean) Ballgame!

Lee Jong-wook, outfielder for the Doosan Bears from 2006-2013.  He currently plays for the
NC Dinos.
(Photo by 티스토리 블로그 바람이분다 (130807 잠실야구장 두산#양의지,이종욱).
 Licensed under CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Baseball was born in the US sometime in the late 1860's when semipro national baseball clubs started to be formed.  Since then, the sport has not only become a national past time for Americans but it's become a global phenomenon massing fans in many countries.

The World Baseball Classic is a hugely followed sports exhibition and even the Little League World Series gets major coverage on most sports channels.

Baseball is believed to have been introduced to Korea in 1905 by American missionaries during the Korean Empire, after which it gradually gained popularity.  Today, the sport ranks second in popularity behind football aka soccer.   Korea also has a national team that has participated in the Summer Olympic Games of 1984, 1988, 1996 and 2000. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, it won the gold medal in a final victory against Cuba.

A Hanok Home Away From Home.

Hanok houses located in an area west of Bukchon Hanok Village, Seoul.
(Photo by by Sakaori. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.)

It was my cousin, Yim, who told me about hanoks. She visited Korea last year with my aunt. She knows how I like to travel and suggested that I look into staying at a hanok in the Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul.  I Googled the village and the images that I saw immediately captivated me.  I was going to rent an Airbnb apartment but how much cooler would it be to stay in a hanok?

Hanok is the commonly used term to describe Korean traditional home.

The hanok shares characteristics with its Chinese and Japanese counterparts but has developed very distinct characteristics due to climatic and cultural circumstances of Korea.

In premodern Korea, every type of building, regardless of its purpose - residential, official, or religious - was built with basically the same techniques and materials. The materials used in the construction of a hanok are all very environmentally friendly and sustainable.  Earth and stone were used for the foundation; a mixture of earth and straw for the walls; tiles or straw for the roof and wood for pillars, rafters, doors, windows and flooring.  Korean paper was used throughout the house - glued to the frame of the sliding doors and the cross ribs of the windows.  Both the wooden floors and the paper walls were polished with bean oil which not only imparted a sheen to the look of the wood and paper but it also made them waterproof.