Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

"The lunar calendar has about 10 less days than the solar year," said Chris Jochim, chair and professor of the humanities department.

"Next year the festival will be about 12 days earlier."

This year the harvest moon, said to be the largest moon of the year, falls on Sept. 28.

"The 15th day of every lunar month is the full moon," Jochim said.

"We have the illusion that the harvest moon is larger this time of year; but it just looks bigger."

In Vietnam the festival is called "Tet Trung Thu," in China it is "Zhongqiu Jie" and in Korea the festival is called "Chu-sok."

"The moon symbolizes roundness," Jochim said, "Roundness can mean two things -- family getting together or perfection and fullness."

He said it is a party for family, and part of the festival is to enjoy the moon at night.

"It's romantic, and is also a party for lovers," Jochim said.

Part of the romance comes from the legend of Cheng Er, Jade Rabbit and Hou Yi.

"A long time ago there were ten suns in the sky and it was too hot, so an archer, Hou Yi, shot nine suns and left only one in the sky," said Kevin Tzu-Shuan Lu, president of San Jose State University's Chinese Mandarin Bible Fellowship.

"The people loved him so much that he became an emperor and lived in a palace," Lu said.

He said Hou Yi became arrogant and mean as he got older.

He desired to be immortal, and ordered his officers to make him an immortal elixir, Lu said.

The officers made it, but Hou Yi's wife Cheng Er stole and drank the elixir to save the people from an eternity of his unpleasant rule, Lu said.

The Emperor was very angry, and Cheng Er had to fly to the moon to escape him, bringing with her only one companion -- her pet, Jade Rabbit.

Lu said according to the legend, the moon festival celebrates Cheng Er's sacrifice.

The name of the festival and the folklore behind it vary slightly in each country, but the festivities are similar and revolve around the special moon that occurs on this night, according to the Asia for Kids Web site.

"It's the culture of all Asians," said Tae Pham, a junior at Piedmont Hills High School in San Jose.

Pham is a member of the Vietnamese American Club for the Improvement of Community, which had a booth at the Mid-Autumn Children's Festival in Cesar Chavez Park in downtown San Jose last Saturday.

The festival featured traditional dancing, live music, lion dancing, martial arts and booths for children to make special paper lanterns or purchase them pre-made.

"The purpose (of the festival) is for families to get together to celebrate the full moon," said Thuy Tran, president of the San Jose State University Vietnamese Nursing Students Association.

"In Vietnam, all the families are in the field to work, and they would stop on this day and get together to celebrate their hard work," she said.

Tran said one important part of the festival is mooncake, a cake made with a variety of fillings, like soybean, sweet fruit and egg yolks.

The legend of mooncake dates back to 1368 A.D., the time of the Great Wall, when the Chinese overthrew the Mongols, said Jennifer Chang, the chair of the Moon Festival of Silicon Valley, a Chinese festival.

She said communication among the Chinese army was very difficult, especially across large spaces of land, but the Chinese knew Mongols didn't eat mooncake, so they would hide messages inside them.

Jochim, chair of the SJSU humanities department, said mooncakes come in many different shapes and can be round and flat, square and flat, octagonal and flat or round like a ball.

"Even though they are not all round, they all symbolize roundness," he said.

"The content is more important."

Tran said when she lived in Vietnam her family bought mooncakes and made their own lanterns, but since she moved to the United States eating mooncake is the only part of the festival she still observes.

Tran said she used to make lanterns in a variety of colors out of paper and bamboo sticks, in different shapes like fish, rabbits and butterflies.

The lanterns have a small red candle inside and are lit to symbolize the full moon, said Huy Nguyen, who performed tae kwon do at last Saturday's festival with his brother Anh Nguyen and the other members of the group Team M.

"The lantern is the most important thing in the festival," said Anh Nguyen, a senior computer science major at San Jose State University.

The City of Cupertino celebrated its sixth Chinese Moon Festival on Sept. 18 and 19, with the Moon Festival of Silicon Valley, said J. Ralph Otte, the public relations director for the festival.

"The moon festival is the second more important festival for Chinese people after Chinese New Year," said Jennifer Chang, chair of the Moon Festival of Silicon Valley.

Chang's mother, Lucia Wuu, was chair of all the previous Cupertino Moon Festivals.

"The moon festival was based around harvests, and since we're not really in an agricultural society, it has changed," Chang said.

Otte said the festival developed out of a desire for the original population of Cupertino to better understand the culture of the region's growing Chinese population.

"The theme of unity and cross cultural understanding developed," Otte said.

He said the festival drew a crowd of approximately 75,000 people from all different cultures, and seemed to be accomplishing the festival organizers' goals.

"We get along pretty well these days, compared to the rest of the world," he said.