Other than being "our" Harvest Moon, and a lunar eclipse in much of the world except the USA, there is another special condition this month. It does take a bit of background, so hang in there and this might give you something to talk about with the neighbors, family, friends, or general public this week.

This is a special full moon for the Chinese and Vietnamese cultures. I'm visiting family in Ohio this week rather than being at home in Tucson. My brother-in-law, Bill, is hosting his step-daughter's friend who is a high school senior Chinese exchange student, and last night we had a great session talking Chinese astronomical lore as well as the mythology of the Chinese Red Thread. Usually I celebrate the event at the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center's Red Thread Family Lunar Celebration, but I'm in Ohio this year.

Even though I can't be there, I thought I'd pass on what I remember about the Red Thread family event. This is a really big deal for the Chinese community. The festival of the Moon was even made a national holiday in Communist China beginning in 2006! This week's full moon is VERY special to Chinese and Vietnamese cultures; they usually celebrate with special small cakes filled with nuts, or meat, or other fillings and decorated on the top in frosting showing the Jade Rabbit.

The Red Thread families are a loose national association formed when adoption of Chinese orphans was permitted, and the Tucson families formed their support group in 1992. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_string_of_fate

Basically, Red Thread started as a myth that newborns who would later meet and become married were tied at the ankles with invisible red cords and fate would bring them together. Later in the development of the Chinese culture, any two people who would meet in the future were bound at birth by this invisible red cord or thread. The Japanese adapted the concept to being bound by red threads at the little finger. The Red Thread concept stems from a Chinese proverb applied to the inevitable bond between the adopting families and the adoptees :



They started celebrating the Lunar holiday to keep the culture alive for the adopted kids. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a harvest festival celebrated by ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese people since about 1600 BC. The festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese Han calendar and Vietnamese calendar (within 15 days of the autumnal equinox), on the night of the full moon between early September to early October of the Gregorian calendar. Chang'e, the Moon Godess of immortality visits the Moon at this time with her lunar rabbit (also called the Jade Rabbit), which just happens to be the Lunar Poodle upside down.

This is the month for Moon Goddess and Jade Rabbit to be on the Moon for the harvest. And in the English speaking world, this month's Full Moon is called the Harvest Moon. But for the Chinese culture, time for moon cakes with the Jade Rabbit in the frosting. Here is the moon without the Jade Rabbit highlighted, and the moon with Jade Rabbit outlined.





Nowadays, because the Chinese culture adopted the Gregorian calendar, the Lunar Festival changes every year. Long ago, full moon was always on the 15th day of the 8th month. But that was because the Chinese calendar was fixed at the start of the year so Sept. 15 was always a full moon. Uniting their calendar with the European calendar lost that fixed festival timing throughout the year, and was used as a way to control the population by keeping the 9th month full moon a secret from the people until late in the year. This week is the Lunar Festival or Moon Goddess festival, when she flies to the Moon to live for a while with her Jade Rabbit, which we can see naked eye; the top of the moon is the ears, and the whole left side of the moon is the rest of the magic rabbit.

BTW, China successfully landed a lunar rover on December 14, 2013. The landing vehicle was named Chang'e, after the Moon Goddess, and the rover it later rekeased was named Yutu, or the Jade Rabbit. This week, for the Harvest Moon, have a special cupcake with the Jade Rabbit frosting and celebrate the Chinese and Vietnamese Mid-Autumn Festival.