“Thanksgiving Day” and “Zhongqiu Jie”

Today, October 12, the country of Canada celebrates Thanksgiving Day. In different countries, people celebrate Thanksgiving Day in different ways, and on different days, but the purpose is almost the same, all for giving thanks to God. Also, each nation, has its own Thanksgiving Day.

For people in the United States, they celebrate it on the fourth Thursday in November. On that day, the whole nation immersed in a festive atmosphere. People go to church to thank God, and you can see people with Costume Parade celebrating everywhere, drama or sports competitions. People will come back from different parts of country, the family gathered together around the table, tasting delicious Thanksgiving turkey.

Canadian people celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the second Monday of October, 5 and half weeks earlier than the United States. Canadians thank God for the success of the main harvest. In Canada, Thanksgiving dinner is a traditional dinner, people eat thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie, also you can see a symbol full of flowers and fruits rich cornucopia on the centre of table. Families and friends come togther to share the joy of harvest, to thank God.

For the Chinese people, we celebrate it on the 15th day of the 8th moon (according to the Chinese Lunar calendar), we call Zhongqiu jie. This joyous Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated around the time of the autumn equinox. Many refer to it simply as the "Fifteenth of the Eighth Moon". For this year, we celebrated it just a few days ago. Although the Chinese people not to use directly this term "Thanksgiving"; even though the ruling is an atheist country now, however, in terms of people's fundamental beliefs, but also is one of the nation who worships of God and His Name. People give the festival day more mythologizes, such as "Chang Er flies to the Moon" , a symbol of people's quest for beauty; on the other side, also people celebrate the "Zhongqiu Jie" for the blessing of God.

This day is also considered as a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain has been harvested by this time and food was abundant. Food offerings are 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 including moon cakes, cooked taro and water caltrop, a type of water chestnut resembling black buffalo horns. Some people insist that cooked taro be included because at the time of creation, taro was the first food discovered at night in the moonlight. These, can not be omitted from the Mid-Autumn Festival.

As well, the traditional festivity of Zhongqiu Jie has its long story. It became very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) that people enjoyed and worshiped the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 A.D.), however, people sent round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes, of family reunion, and they thank God for his blessing in the past, aboveall, people celebrated the harvest of the year. In China, previously, people celebrated it just like a folk festival, but since last year, Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu Jie) was defined as national public holiday to celebrate for the entire country.

Anyway, whether it is Thanksgiving Day or the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, although each of them includes the different culture, they have something in common. People celebrate the harvest and thank God. For us Christians, each day is a gift from God, because of this, we celebrate the “Holy Eucharist” everyday.