All about eating?
In the past, this day was considered a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables, and grains had been harvested by summer, and food was abundant. With delinquent accounts settled prior to the festival, it was a time for relaxation and celebration. Food offerings were placed on an altar set up in the courtyard. Apples, pears, peaches, grapes, pomegranates, melons, oranges, and pomelos might be seen. Special foods for the festival included moon cakes, cooked taro, edible snails from the taro patches or rice paddies cooked with sweet basil, and water caltrope, a type of water chestnut resembling black buffalo horns. Whenever the festival sets in, people look up at the full silver moon, drinking wine to celebrate their happy life or thinking of their relatives and friends far from home, and extending all of their best wishes to them.
Up to today, however, all the meanings conveyed in the festival have seemingly vanished. Most of the residents who took the poll believed the holiday "is all about eating"- different eating under different circumstances, including family reunions and company dinner meetings.
According to a report released today, about 300 million Chinese are expected to travel during the upcoming holiday. The number represents an increase of 20% from a year earlier, according to a report by the China Tourism Academy and Ctrip.com. Apparently, more and more people in the country prefer a trip during this time, either with family members or friends.
This is definitely good news for the economy since travelers are projected to spend 145 million yuan ($22.7 billion) on domestic travel.
It might not be "all about eating," but it definitely is about spending, like any holiday in the country and in the world. Thus, the holiday has lost its "traditional feeling."
Meanwhile, the survey also found that many people have started to call for rejuvenation of traditions in order to revive the atmosphere of the festival. "The festival can't be just about surfing online for three days straight or traveling around. Traditional activities including religious rituals should be revived," said the devoted folk culture expert Zhong Fulan.
New features are called for
Adding to many of the voices calling for rejuvenation of traditions, 17% of whom took the poll advocated modern features for the old festival. They hold the opinion that "it's a different time, and the festival, too, should involve different meanings while preserving traditional ones."
Advocators argue that the better way to revive the traditions lies in the efforts to combine it with modern lifestyles. Backing such an opinion, some environmentalists have called for "lights off on the very evening on Mid-Autumn Day to get people outside to enjoy the full moon."
