The Moon Festival and Mao Day 10/09

The Moon Festival this year was on the fourth day that air pollutant levels reached category 4 (unhealthy) here in Beijing. The thick grey air made the festivities look eerie like they were in fact taking place on the moon.  Decorated tables and lanterns are set up everywhere outside so families can gather to watch the full moon rise, to eat moon cakes and to sing moon poems.  This year no one could see the table on the other side of the courtyard let alone the moon.

In spite of the red eyes, aggravated sinuses and headaches, side effects of breathing “suspended particulates”, people share their moon cakes with loved ones staring up at where the moon would be in a ritual dedicated to bringing happiness.  Every one will receive a moon cake as a gift. They are wrapped in shiny paper and placed in elaborate boxes inside matching gift bags.  But the people I know who have tried them make a face so twisted in regards to the taste, that I haven’t even looked at the ones I received.  Yet I think I will keep the box.

While the Moon Festival is on the 15^th of the 8^th lunar month, National Day is celebrated October 1^st.   Nothing is more important than National Day for the Chinese.  From the 1^st to the 3^rd it is illegal to work, but since the Chinese are really more capitalistic than Americans, it seems hard to imagine they’ll stop work for anything, even for the memory of Mao.

This is the 60^th anniversary of the founding of The People’s Republic of China and Beijing is pulling out all the stops. The area around Tiananmen Square will virtually shut down so that one of those colossal feats that only the Chinese can pull off will take place.  Parades with supernaturally synchronized movements, red flags and the most spectacular display of fireworks make me proud and I am not even Chinese.  Security snipers have been posted around central Beijing for a month.  A friend was staying in a hotel along the square last week and happened to go by the window, only to find rifles pointing in his direction.  Offices and apartments have been taken over and searched and the owners must move out for about three days.

The city has been given an overnight facelift.  Instant gardens have sprung up along roads; green netting has been laid over dirt.  It looks almost like grass from far away.  The best thing about National Day is the fact that the Chinese authorities will surely make it rain tonight.  They have the power and the technology to do that.  And even if this means we will have a “blue sky” day tomorrow, I’ll be watching the parade on TV.