Autumn mindfulness, and the Moon festival

Hey guys, welcome to Learn Feng Shui, where you'll learn Feng Shui from a classical point of view taken out the myth and superstition. If you like weekly tips as well as fun folklore tales, you'll enjoy learning Feng Shui with me. Welcome to Learn Feng Shui. Today we're going to be covering the full moon, Maybon, and the Mid Autumn Festival as well as rituals you can do to celebrate the harvest season. Guys, so when I was thinking about my theme for the day, I really wanted to talk about the Mid Autumn Festival that they celebrate in China and different Southeast Asian countries.

When I was thinking of that, I was like, how can I incorporate the moon into my tips? How can I incorporate Feng Shui tips into that? I'm very much Feng Shui just a tad bit. I wanted to talk about some rituals you can do this fall or this autumn equinox doesn't have to specifically be the autumn equinox, but how you can honor that time of the year in some different ways. So maybe you want to do some things around your home to welcome in this changing energy in the season we're coming into.

So today we're going to talk about a few things you can do to honor the fall season. Pumpkins are a huge part of the fall season. We do the pumpkin patch, we put pumpkins in our yard, we start collecting them for carving in October if it's not too hot outside, and then we put those little faux pumpkins out. So you guys may not know this, but if you're doing this, this is actually a big symbol of health. And so the gourd and Asian cultures are what is called a calabash.

It actually symbolizes health and sometimes they're hollowed out and used to in people's rooms or whatever. If you want to improve somebody's health, it said you can put a calabash by their bed or a gourd by their bed. And so instead of using just a calabash, you're definitely welcome to put pumpkins out and kind of think of that as a symbol of good health. Especially in these times right now, these trying times we're in, you know, this craziness going on, you know, try setting out, you know, a small pumpkin display for and then kind of put that intention into it and just kind of think, you know, this symbolizes the, you know, the health of my family. Another big thing that people do in the fall that's not generally thought of as a ritual is apple picking.

And so apple picking is actually a hear from learn religions calm. It says that of course apples are a symbol of the divine and apple trees are representative of wisdom and guidance and an appalruge will allow you time to think the gods are there bounty and blessings and to enjoy the magic of the earth before the winds will winter blow through. So of course apple is a huge fall harvest. And so maybe go apple picking with the kids with the family have a little day apple picking one day or you know do something where you're gathering of the fruit. I don't have apple an apple tree and I don't think that our apple orchard is still do allowing apple picking.

And so what I'm going to do is just harvest the a corn's off my tree. I get way too many of them and you know I'm going to put them in a bowl to kind of symbolize the harvest. So again coming back to the the tradition of Maybon or the observance of Maybon which is just the autumn equinox in a you know pagan term the pagan will of the years it marks as Maybon. It's traditionally a time of balance it says after all it's one of the two times each year that has equal amounts of daytime and nighttime because of this for many people it's a time of high energy. There's a bit of sometimes a feeling of restlessness in the air in a sense that something might be a bit off.

So if you feel off a bit spiritually they recommend here to do a simple meditation to restore balance into your life. I think that's a very good point. Just to a simple meditation of you know feeling that balance we are coming into a month where the energy is a little bit strange you know I address that in the monthly energies. It's definitely a repeat of 2017 but again the rooster is the element of metal you know it's the element of metal a Yin medal. It again I would say that I think as when you have too much metal and of course if you're a water person this really mixes and it can create a lot of emotions.

If you have a lot of water a lot of metal in your Chinese astrology chart then you may notice you'll feel this way. And so just kind of grounding a bit the weather should be cooling down pretty soon. I know here in the south and nights around the mid you know right around that midway point in that equinox we usually get the cooler evenings. So it's definitely a time we could go out and sit out in the evenings maybe ground a little bit and it won't be so hot. This website also suggests to do a gratitude ritual and I thought this was really good.

I mean we usually associate Thanksgiving as a time of that gratitude you know that that bountiful harvest that we have you know the big meal that we celebrate or gathering your friends and family. But you know we can kind of have that feeling throughout the whole season and so you may just you know sit for a while and think of some things you're grateful for maybe list them out or kind of write them out and you know have a gratitude board or a gratitude journal or maybe somewhere you put that throughout the day so you can kind of look at that and remember to be grateful. And we do have to remember when we're not grateful for what we have the universe doesn't have a chance to give us more my next two tips kind of go hand in hand another thing you can do is take a nature walk. This is my prescription to you. I love being outside the fall because the cooler weather you know let's us go outside a little bit earlier.

You know we go outside you know during that day like cool time so September the temperature start dropping around here at least in the evenings the rest of the time is you know 100 degrees still in the daytime but that also brings me to the next point being outside create a bonfire a bonfire of course is a you know a way to honor the ending of the season of fire we're coming out of the season of summer which you know the fire. Fire season so one way to kind of honor this ending is to just create a big bonfire you know throw your pals a beliefs in there that you don't need and create a nice little bonfire in honor of the ending of the fire season. And my final tip for the fall season would be to do some deep cleaning so do some deep cleaning spend some time before you put out any fall decorations you know it's again it's a time of year I've noticed crap falling off my tree in my front yard I have a two different trees and one of them of course is oak and there's little acorns coming off of it and so you know cleaning up your garden. Tightening up the space around you clearing away some of those dry leaves from your front porch you know but also the inside stuff to be mindful and do some quote unquote like spring cleaning and get rid of some stuff you're not using and just do a deep cleaning of some of the closets in your in your home and you know get ready for the upcoming holiday season. And more on me bonfireworldhistory.org and me bonstead raise the autumn equinox through Thanksgiving and reflection on what one has gained and lost over the year.

The name is a modern a creation coined as recently as nineteen seventies by the weekend rider Adrian Kelly but the practice of observing the autumn equinox is quite ancient sites such as new grain gin Ireland Stonehenge and Britain may show and clove of carn's in the city. And the car is in Scotland and more elsewhere all known to have been constructed through astronomical alignments and of course how often have we heard that that you know these ancient Megalys and these ancient sites line up precisely if not very closely to the equinoxes so at low crew and a five thousand year old Megalith car in Boine Valley Ireland the auto equinox illuminates the inside chambers backstone with uncanny precision. It was once thought that this car like other Megalith monuments mentioned was purposely built as a part of an extra ritual celebrations including may bon. So a car and I had to look this up I didn't know what this word was it's spelled T. A.

I. R. N. it is just literally a stacking of rocks and so I think most people understand like you've seen like the little zin stacked rocks you know what I'm saying. The stacked rocks you know where you kind of balance those rocks out right like I think when most people think Feng Shui they think of the little balancing rocks sometimes a picture that I pull up you know the stock photos I pull it for Feng Shui have the little balance rocks so it's literally just but it's it's used with giant stones Megalithic stones and they're either stacked or they're you know where they're balanced or they're just stacked in mounds or hills and some of them are pretty small where they're you know maybe up to your knees and some of them are quite huge where they look like.

Literally a little mountain or hill. So may bon rich will focus on the loss of the goddess who goes to the underworld in the autumn but will return in the spring. Although this motif is best known through the story of Persephone and Demeter from ancient Greece almost every ancient civilization had a story involving a god or goddess who goes down to the underworld and later returns to bring life and prosperity to humanity. That does sound familiar right? In the Celtic believed the fertility gods her new nios went to the underworld at or around the time of a bon and returned to the earth at austro or Belten as the green man.

Sir Nuno was among the most popular of the Celtic deities especially in Ireland where his followers posed the greatest challenge to early Christian missionaries. And just as a kind of a side note we all know that it means very well known that the Christian holidays were centered around this also the wheel of the year just to incorporate and I think to make it easier when they were trying to convert. This also makes me think if you have not watched a show outlander on on Netflix you should go watch that the premises that of the main character falls into one of these megalithic monuments and goes back in time very entertaining. And from China highlights dot com eight things you might not know about the Chinese mid autumn festival. China's mid autumn festival is the second most important traditional festival in China but it is less well known than the lunar new year overseas.

So let's discover more about the mid autumn festival origins and customs. One the harvest moon obsession reunion and expectation it says since ancient times there have been many legends about the moon in China for the Chinese the moon symbolizes being a holy pure noble over tens of thousands of poems describing the moon have been recorded. The moon's round shape also corresponds to the cyclical concept of Taoism like the eight diagrams that is why the Chinese people are fixated on the moon and view round shapes as representing perfection. So I'll just add that the eight diagrams also translate to the eight chariom or the eight different sectors or directions you know within a space. And one thing I learned about the moon in the full especially a full moon is that it it's Feng Shui they look at the full moon as symbolizing like a completeness number two luxury moon cakes so when people mention China's mid autumn festival the first image you may conjure up is a image of moon cake so Chinese moon cakes not only have a long history of numerous flavors.

In addition to traditional fillings such as lotus root melon seed and other fruits there are some bizarre recipes such as chocolate spicy the filling leak filling and fermented bean curbs. With different packaging the moon cake to range in price for a few dozen dollars to a few thousand dollars even though a normal moon cake costs is pretty cheap these high end moon cakes have become luxurious presents between bureaucrats over the past few years. And I thought it was pretty cool when we went to Singapore in 2018 we went around the end of August actually about this time of year right now and I thought it was really cute that these Starbucks had moon cakes at the time I didn't really know what they were for what they were used for and I always kick myself for not getting the Starbucks moon cakes. Number three there's a travel peak so it's one of the second most important traditional festivals in China so it says here the crowds traveling during the mid autumn festival should not be underestimated although they can't compare to the travel risk during the spring festival the largest which is actually the largest migration in the world. In 2008 the Mid autumn festival was approved as a statutory holiday and people were granted three day holidays and so it says most people choose to go home for the reunion or they travel which does stress the transporting system it says if you have no intention of experiencing millions of people on the move in China you should avoid a holiday when you plan your tour.

It's not unusual to end up sitting in a car all day on a highway during this holiday in China. So traditionally it is expected that you get a red envelope just like you get for a lunar new year and here it says that number four they are actually doing an app called WeChat Red Involved rather than just given the traditional envelope so the WeChat Red Involved is just a way of sending money digitally so it says are you sending cards or making phone calls during the holidays then you are out of touch. The most popular greeting nowadays in China is the WeChat Red Involved which is a mobile application allowing users to send or receive money online. So during the Mid autumn festival gala on CCTV viewers are invited to shake their smartphones for a chance to win red envelopes. People usually attach a few words as a greeting when they send their envelope and in addition Chinese people prefer red envelopes containing the numbers six or eight so they want multiples of six or eight.

So here it says that if you send six hundred or sixty six a year or a year I don't know I'm not sure what the Chinese currency is but it says if you send six hundred or sixty six dollars then it is considered to be very lucky and eight hundred and eighty eight means that you hope somebody could fortune the number eight is pretty popular. So if you want to send somebody some money during this time it's multiples of six or eight. So the fifth thing you may not know is that it is a big matchmaking time so it says here that many urban parks in China have a matchmaking corner so visitors can be seen in the hundreds sometimes thousands older parents and pensioners can gather here and there they are to exchange information about their children who are still unmarried hoping them to find an ideal place. So in China many people are women are considered to be left over if they are not married by twenty five and a man can consider this by thirty. So their parents are to see them get married and the three day vacation of the middle of the festival is a good chance to have them a set up a blind date at the parents request.

That's a little bit of cultural difference between here and the west and in the east is that we don't really you know rush I don't think to get married so you know this is just a little bit of a cultural difference but I will say you might take this chance you know just the thought of again just kind of that intention you're setting for yourself for the fall season if your choice is to get married you want to find an ideal partner. Maybe you can let somebody set you up and that's another way you can kind of celebrate this fall season. So number six family dinners can be difficult to find a restaurant to eat at so the Middleton Festival carries themes of reunification and strengthening a family relationships so family dinners are very important just like the reunion dinners at the spring festival. So a traditional dinner and China normally means several hours of preparation and because of this and it only being a three day holiday people don't really like to cook at home but rather a book at a restaurant so to save time and it's been more time with their family they usually will have to book right after the spring festival so it says some of the lesser known restaurants. You know a month or two in advance but some of the very popular restaurants they do require reservations made in February.

So there's a lot of legends that go around explaining the moon festival or is Middleton festival and so number seven is Midd autumn legends you might not know that there's many different interesting stories. So please explain the origins of this festival and there's three really widespread ones but the most accepted one is the story of Changi in Hu Yi. So the legend goes that along a go there was a beautiful lady Changi whose husband was a brave archer Hu Yi but one day she drank a bottle of a liquor that made her immortal to honor her husband's instructions to keep it safe. She was separated from her beloved husband floating up into the sky and finally landing on a moon where she lives to this day. So there's historic origins for moon cakes that's this number eight the Chinese have celebrated the harvest during the autumn moons since the Shang dynasty which was about 1600 to 1046 BC but it started to gain popularity during the Tang dynasty.

Will their tradition of eating moon cakes during the festival begin in the Yuan dynasty and the one of the first empires of the Ming dynasty started an uprising using these moon cakes to support the podcast be sure to subscribe we review and share with your family and friends who you think may be interested especially if you found this content useful. To learn more about Feng Shui and Chinese metaphysics follow the link to the website below.