Over the Moon

The Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival) is celebrated by Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and other East and Southeast Asian communities. Arts Out East met with various creatives and community cultural groups who shared how they celebrate this time of year and what it means to them through song, dance, art or food.

Capturing these beautiful moments and sharing their cultural stories about the moon was photographer Julie Zhu and local writer Kitty Chang. Their stories will continue to be shared within the East Auckland community.

Fr Sherwin Lapaan

Sherwin Lapaan has been living in New Zealand for over twelve years and found himself ill and struggling in hospital during the pandemic.

A friend visiting him suggested that they go to the hospital shop to buy a book and some pens so he could write out his frustrations.

Armed with his pens and notebook, Father Sherwin thought he would be able to write and reflect on his own questions about life. In hospital, he had a view of the children’s ward, and his heart went out to the children staying there. Instead of journaling, he started drawing sketches of children with their toys and balloons. These simple sketches developed, and friends donated canvas and acrylic paints for him to continue his art. This was the catalyst for him to capture what he saw and turn pictures into beautiful paintings. He was able to see the moon from his window and remembered his childhood in the Philippines where children went to play hide and seek when there was a full moon.

He was inspired when he was young by the cartoon film An American Tail (1986) and the words of the song “Somewhere Out There beneath the pale moonlight, someone is thinking of me and loving me tonight. Somewhere out there, someone is saying a prayer that we’ll find one other, in that big somewhere out there.” The song encapsulates feelings a lot of migrants have when they feel lonely, missing their friends and families.

Father Sherwin’s first representation of the moon was a simple. He drew a child with a balloon and her cat walking with the light of the moon. Now, his paintings would grace the walls of any home or art gallery.

The Youth Group at his church, St Marks, have access to Father Sherwin’s paintings to exhibit and raise funds for their charitable works.

Father Sherwin says:

“I think it is important to be connected to one’s culture and tradition. This tradition has inspired and informed many of our ancestors to become better, if not, great people. People grow when they are fully immersed in their culture and cultural identity. They said that people of culture have greater selfidentity and strong knowledge of who they are. Many young people nowadays are lost because they have no sense of identity and are disconnected to their cultures and traditions.”

If you are lucky enough to be able to see paintings signed by “Sheng” with a cat’s paw print, you might be able to meet the artist and ask him to tell you more stories related to the moon and the cat.

Jennifer Sung

Jennifer Sung has lived in New Zealand for about 23 years.

This active mother and grandmother keep both her mind and body active by learning new things. What she doesn’t know, she will find out from books and magazines, and she is adept at many crafts. At a time when many women her age are winding down and relaxing, Jennifer challenges herself to learn new crafts and skills. As well as being part of the Crime Patrol in her area, she has recently taught herself how to make mooncakes.

Generous with her time and knowledge, Jennifer and her friend Jean Pan were busy making mooncakes when we went to visit. We watched as the experts kneaded and stretched the prepared outer layers of the delicacy to receive the fillings that had been made with duck egg yolks wrapped with taro or lotus flour bases. The moon cakes were then wrapped with the outer layer and put into a mould bought from Taiwan. This simple mould had an ingenious mechanism which pressed the cake out with the beautiful moon cake patterns imprinted on them, ready to be baked.

Jennifer has two sons, one of them lives in Taiwan with his family but she doesn’t feel lonely during celebrations like the Moon Festival. She invites her friends around to make moon cakes. She says, “The mooncake reflects tradition and legend since about a thousand years ago. The full moon represents perfection and union, so the autumn full moon is a time for family reunion.

In Taiwan it is a big family event. Here, we can only do this among friends”.

When asked why she thought it was important to still celebrate the Moon Festival, she stated: “I am Chinese.

We

I want to preserve the culture even if I am living in another place”.

are so pleased Jennifer is preserving the traditions and the recipes of her old home in this place.

East Ailing Luo

Ailing Luo and her friends Jean Chen, Bin bin Zhang and Shao wei Huang love their dancing group.

They meet every Monday at 9:30 -12:00 at the Pakuranga Community Hall, 347 Pakuranga Road. The group have the enthusiasm, stamina, and ability of women half their age learning and performing dance moves. They practice and enjoy each other’s company and learn not only steps, hand movements but also manage to display the fluid movements of Chinese classical dance.

Watching these ladies dance is like watching poetry as they move and glide to traditional Chinese music. Ailing researches the music and dance moves to be incorporated in their dances and teaches her friends to share her love of dance. Her dances include different forms such as fan, handkerchief, modern and folk dancing. The beautiful silk fans delicately incorporated into the routines display beauty and grace in the way they are used. Watching the dancers moving with their fans and beautiful costumes, the viewer is reminded of more genteel times where there was order and respect for tradition.

Jean Chen says, “In our home country Moon Festival has all the good and pleasant symbols. It happens during the festival season. People get together dancing, singing, eating, visiting friends, cherishing the ancestors, sharing experiences, respecting the aged and loving the young, to share mooncakes and drinks under the moon.”

The Moon Festival means more than friends and food though. The group feel that “Community, cultural understanding of many ethnics by sharing our love to the moon, not only our home,

but more over nature and the universe we humans share wherever we are.”

The group gets together not just for maintaining both mental and physical health but also for friendship and community. They are a part of the Auckland Chinese Association in East Auckland and are involved in the social activities run by the association. Anybody who wishes to learn more about the dance group or join the dance group - just turn up on Monday morning. You are most welcome!

Edwin Charoensinkha

Alex Tee

Edwin, born in New Zealand comes from a Thai family, and Alex, born in Malaysia of Chinese heritage came to NZ in 2010.

Studying for exams in your final year of school is hard for most students but Edwin and Alex, senior students at Pakuranga College added to their load by collaborating to develop a visual presentation which they hope will lead to bigger things in their future.

Edwin (self-taught) has danced since year 7 and loves to perform to entertain people. He mainly does free style dancing like shuffle and liquid dancing. He states: “I took inspiration for the visuals in this performance from a French artist named Madeon from his concert Good Faith Forever.”

Edwin started out by projecting the visuals on a screen behind him but found it hard to concentrate on so many things at once so their teacher suggested Edwin and Alex collaborate so they could both explore their passions and create a product that would showcase their abilities.

Edwin’s dance starts off with black and white background images gradually changing into a kaleidoscope of colours while the music and words of Madeon’s song, “Love you Back” engineered by Alex, assault your senses (visual and auditory) and make you want to dance along.

The duo wants to expand their talents into a longer show and invite their friends and family to come and watch.

Alex has had most of his schooling in New Zealand like Edwin and they are typical Kiwi guys, interested in music and technology.

Asked about their experiences of Moon Festivals, Edwin said, “Some of my relatives are Chinese and some of us are Thai. I don’t regularly celebrate but I am fascinated by the culture. My grandma celebrates moon festival by going to a nearby temple and she buys moon cakes. I celebrate by going to temples and praying and afterwards we go eat at a yum cha. It’s important to me and my family because it maintains the culture throughout our family tree.”

Both Alex and Edwin represent a new generation of migrant families where traditional meets contemporary and we look forward to watching how these young people develop and embrace their impressions of culture combining it with family traditions.

Zanele Mavuso

Zanele Mavuso came to New Zealand from Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) on the African continent nearly 18 years ago.

The country has its own King who rules with the chiefs. She states: “In my Eswatini culture we don’t do anything to celebrate the moon, but some people do ceremonies depending on the moon, whether it’s full or not. One of the most important traditional ceremonies is one where the King and his men get involved in and they call it a prayer for the nation. It is a very serious solemn activity, and young children don’t normally participate.”

Christian churches had a great influence in Eswatini and before independence were responsible for much of the education and health services, particularly in rural areas. Today, many of the traditional beliefs and practices of the rest of the population are combined with a religious approach to life. Zanele loves studying and enriching her knowledge. She grew up reading the Bible, so decided to base her approach to how different cultures regard the moon on “Wisdom literature based on Hebraic Writings” so the information is from the Holy Bible.

There are many references to the moon in the Bible and Zanele highlighted mention of the moon from the creation story to St Paul’s admonition about how Christians should behave. The moon was made as one of the lights on the fourth day of creation. The purpose of the moon was: To serve as signs to mark days, seasons and years. It was to rule over the night and shine- Genesis 1:14-18. It was established to be a sign of permanence, Psalms 72:5

Zanele mentions “The Hebrew word for month (hodesh) literally means new moon.

New Moon Festivals marked the dedication of each new month in the year to God with burnt offering of animals without defect (called sacrifices) and trumpets blown. The people would have family feasts and they would suspend labour and trade. The Bible also admonishes believers to not just focus on the temporal but on the spiritual as well, “Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or regarding a religious festival, a New Moon Celebration or a Sabbath day These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. – Colossians 2:16-17

Even in countries as diverse as Eswatini, China, Vietnam and New Zealand, the Moon holds an important place in our lives.

Akiko Diegel

Akiko Diegel was born in Japan but has lived in New Zealand for about 30 years.

She learned to do origami when she was in kindergarten and has been doing it all her life. Origami is the art of folding paper to create objects in both two-dimensions and three-dimensions. Akiko enjoys teaching this craft as she feels it is exciting to be able to share her background and culture with others. She thinks it is good to share the diversity of beliefs and stories about the moon from around the world.

In Japan, the Moon Festival is called Otsukimi or Tsukimi which means “moon viewing”. It is also known as the 15th night or Jugoya. In Japan, during the Moon Viewing people gather at a window to view the moon and rice offerings are made to express gratitude for a good harvest and enjoy each other’s company.

A Japanese story (Tsuki no Usagi) tells how the Man in the Moon visited Earth and disguised himself as a beggar. He meets various animals who bring him food to eat. The rabbit however, had nothing to offer except grass so he asked the beggar to build a fire and was about the offer himself as a sacrifice for the beggar to eat. Because of his unselfishness and kindness towards the beggar, the Man in the Moon revealed his true identity and took the rabbit back to the moon to live with him.

Akiko used this theme to teach learners how to make a threedimensional card for the Moon Festival. She says, “In Japan, it is believed that you can see the shape of rabbits making rice cakes on the moon. There are customs, foods and decorations associated with moon festival that are unique to Japan. It is important for me to revisit my rich cultural background and share it with other people.”

Sally Picot

Sally Picot is a New Zealander but has had experience being a migrant when she lived in London for 15 years.

She had never heard of the Moon Festival, but she was curious about what it meant to people around her and how it was celebrated. Sally is very open to learning new things and enjoys working with her hands, making art and doing different crafts. She loves creating art from raw materials and will use all kinds of mediums such as clay, fibre, paper, glass, and paints to name a few. Her approach is to choose a medium and start exploring the possibilities to see what she can create.

As an artist, Sally was curious about what other people and cultures felt about the moon when she found out that there was such a thing as the Moon Festival. In the past, she had heard people talking about “The Man in the Moon” but had not delved into the myth of who he was and how he got there. When she was young, her mother used to take her outside to look up at the moon and asked her if she could see him. This, however, gave her the starting point to formulate her own approach to creating her vision of the moon in her art.

The plaque, sitting in front of her, that she created from a glass and plaster mixture and depicts the full moon. It has a face of the man in the moon, shown in the form of a crescent to one side, its craters filling the remaining space. Sally said she really enjoyed molding and preparing the medium, creating her art and seeing the finished product which will hang on one of her walls. The plaque will be left in the unpainted state because Sally wants to depict the coolness of her moon where it is “feminine, a softer, more introspective dreamtime.”

Van Do

Van Robertson came to New Zealand 13 years ago via the United States after her family had migrated from Vietnam.

She started composing music and songs in 2017, and learned about the folk tales of the man on the moon when she started researching Vietnamese folk tales. The song she composed was based on the story of Chú Cuội, a woodcutter who married a beautiful woman and was later drawn up into the moon by a banyan tree, forever on the moon wondering how to get back to earth. She performed her song with the children of one of her friends Tee Tuyet, and Rosa Chow. Her song is titled: He Sits Above on the Moon.

Van says: I enjoy creating music that fits the mood I’m trying to convey in my songs. The Moon Festival isn’t something that was ever celebrated in my Vietnamese family growing up, at least not at much as the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. But after learning about the celebration of the Moon in mid-August within the Vietnamese culture, I have a deeper connection to my roots and a larger appreciation for the moon. I love that in Vietnam, it’s a celebration of children within the family construct. During this celebration, Vietnamese parents are expected to spend time with their children to make up for lost time during the rest of the year. To me, the celebration of the Moon means a celebration of the parental bond to their children.

Being in New Zealand, I am separated from my family in California and from a large Vietnamese community to which I used to belong in California. Celebrating the Moon in mid-August is a new found way for me to keep that connection with the Vietnamese culture.

I can celebrate it with others in the Vietnamese community here in New Zealand. This celebration along with the celebration of the Lunar New Year will help me keep that cultural connection and develop a solid identity and sense of purpose in life.

Van teaches music theory on the piano in Auckland. If any adult wishes to learn music theory from scratch, they can contact her at vanptdo@gmail.com to make arrangements.

Prathima Devi Mudunuri

Prathima Devi Mudunuri came to New Zealand four years ago from India.

Diwali is celebrated in India, at about the same time as the midAutumn Moon Festival. The activity she demonstrated was not specifically for either celebration as Rangoli patterns are used throughout the year.

Rangoli is a decorative drawing on the floor or at entrances to homes. It is thought to bring good luck, prosperity on the house and in the family, and to welcome guests. Some mothers in India do this activity every morning, or on a special festive occasion like Diwali, Onam, and Pongal. Prathima was taught by her mother and she is teaching the art to her daughter who has already created her own designs. The art is traditionally handed down from mother to daughter.

It was intriguing to watch Prathima bring out packets of coloured powder and chalks and watch her mark out dots on the floor. Then she joined the dots up and created smaller designs inside the large square. “You can start off with a different number of dots, then you join the dots to get patterns and then you fill the patterns with colours” says Prathima.

The coloured powders filling the designs are outlined with white powder which is made of rice flour. In India, the flour can feed the ants which may come by, bringing good luck to the family. The patterns are infinite and you can create and expand them given time and space. It looks easy when Prathima is doing it but over her lifetime, she has probably made thousands of designs.

Prathima’s rangoli included a full moon at the centre of her pattern with flowers and candles in the corners. Flower petals can also be used and incorporated into the design. Making these patterns can take a lot of time but Prathima enjoys it and time passes quickly when she is immersed in the art.

Martino Michael

Martino Michael (Tino) is a New Zealander with Fijian, Sāmoan, Tokelauan, Tuvaluan, American and Scottish heritage.

He calls himself a “fruit salad”, proud to be a born and bred New Zealand kiwi. He has been singing and playing his guitar, entertaining people for over 30 years and enjoys it because he says; “It’s impossible to be lonely if you can play the guitar”. He loves creating songs and music and feels that people can learn through many avenues. His inspiration comes from his own experiences and through talking with others about theirs. Although this is his first celebration of the Moon Festival, he feels it is an opportunity to be thankful for the blessings we receive and an opportunity to acknowledge the moon and be thankful for our gifts.

His previous encounters with the moon were purely practical as a guide to when he needed information about when the moon would be full or tide information was required. However, when he started talking to people about their encounters with the moon, he heard stories and myths from the cultures he came from, stories about Sina the Sāmoan goddess, Hine toa and Hine ora and mana wahine, the strength of women in society. When talking to some of the men in his family, Tino was fascinated by their experiences after falling asleep in the moonlight. In his past, it was generally admonished that “you do not sleep in the moonlight” and he always wondered why. After talking to his relatives who did just that; he was told that in their dreams the moon goddess came to them radiating an air of mystery and magic. They fell in love with her but in the end, she left them bereft as they could not capture her unattainable beauty.

Tino wanted to capture that sense of loss and longing and composed his song titled “I wish you would stay.”

Aura Nusantara

Aura Nusantara Indonesia is the name of a dance group of beautiful young women who put their time and effort in learning traditional Indonesian dancing. The four dancers Vallensia Krismon, Niken Waloejo, Gianni Alfredy and Laura Zellner have been learning and performing Indonesian dances from a young age, in dance schools in Indonesia and some pieces from their Balinese dance teacher in New Zealand.

They practice often when they have an event coming up to ensure they execute the moves perfectly, even though some of them started from a really young age (about 5 years). Their intricate, traditional costumes are made by members of their teacher’s family. The dancers express the storytelling and drama through their precise hand gestures, foot, and head movements, as well as facial expressions. Their professional performances testify that long hours of practice have gone into the dance. They love dancing and feel having the opportunity to showcase and celebrate their culture with people in New Zealand is very rewarding.

Vallensia says, “It is important for us as a community to share our culture with each other and embrace our diversity. In Indonesia Moon Festival is an event that is celebrated in some parts of ndonesia though I became aware of it more here in NZ. I believe some celebrated this with having mooncakes - I personally look forward to this! Celebrating all cultures and appreciating the diversity we all share is something meaningful to us and the core of our group.”

This beautiful dance group would love the opportunity to teach others to learn Indonesian dancing. They can be contacted at: auranusantara.auckland@gmail.com

Chooi Feun Tan

Chooi Feun Tan, came to New Zealand more than 20 years ago. Her special talent is painting in water colours which she started about four years ago.

Chooi enjoyed painting as a child but had nobody to teach her until she came to New Zealand. She enjoys using different mediums but thinks that even though using watercolours is more difficult than using oils or acrylics, water colours are more economical, and you can create lots of different colours from the base colours.

Her Moon Festival project was inspired by a mooncake design she had seen and she demonstrated the different stages she goes through to create her painting. The design depicts a beautiful woman against the background of the full moon watched by a rabbit looking up as she floats to the sky. Chooi has painted different stages of her picture so that we can see how it progresses. Chooi says, “I prepared this because it would take too long to show the actual process as it takes days for the paint to dry between layers.” She is looking forward to hanging the picture on the wall as “it is very satisfying and rewarding as painting needs full concentration.”

Sometimes it takes 8 layers for Chooi to get the right colour. She credits her success in art to having a good teacher and says,” I get the satisfaction of my own creation art work and also I am lucky to have a good and patient teacher”. Her teacher is a kiwi lady, who is an award winner painter herself.

Although painting is her passion, cooking is her first hobby and she makes cakes as a stress release. She feels that the “Moon Festival is a time to celebrate culture, reunion and joy. Celebrations in Malaysia, especially among Asians, are more vibrant and joyful because I have more family and friends there.”

With many thanks to all of the local contributers. Special thanks to project manager Rosa Chow, supporting organisation Inclusionz, photographer Julie Zhu and writer Kitty Chang

This is a project funded by Arts Out East

Supported by Te Tuhi and Howick Local Board