'Aughost'
MEDIUM RARE
The story goes that heaven’s deities would release once a year the malicious, malignant spirits who have been trapped on earth for their misdeeds.
[Meanwhile, there’s word – no written memo, no official notice – that applicants for a driving license who happen to carry a Chinese-sounding surname have been told that only the LTO office on East Ave., Quezon City will work on their applications. LTO, please say it ain’t so.]
The bad spirits thus freed in August would roam and find food left on their doorstep by kind people. August is the eighth month on the Gregorian calendar, but going by the Chinese lunar calendar, the eighth month doesn’t start until Sept. 3.
August is also called the month of the hungry ghost (or ghosts), which is why as our dear and wise elders advise, people should keep a low profile. No big and noisy celebrations. No ear-splitting renovations at home. No fat contracts to sign. No loud music. In short, nothing to call the attention of the spirits.
Wait for the Mid-Autumn Festival on Sept. 17 to celebrate by feasting, exchanging of mooncakes, and lighting of lanterns. (Five days before that, on Sept. 12, as your Gregorian calendar advises, expect a meteor shower starting at 10 p.m. This is not wishful thinking, the information is courtesy of the weather bureau.)
Another tale told of the mooncake is political in tone and origin, that is, that the pastries were distributed as gifts to hide secret messages revealing the time and place of an uprising against the emperor and his warlords. Legend or not, by this time Chinatown should be a wonderland of mooncakes in oh so many flavors – almond, lotus seed, sweet bean. Elsewhere, five-star hotels will be packaging their mooncakes in elegant six-star boxes.
Alas, August, the end of summer leading to autumn, does not come with much of a romantic connotation, unlike June for spring brides, the harvest moon in October, or Christmas in December. In fact, August-born people are often teased for their temperament, sullen one moment, oratorical the next; they can be humorous, though their humor can sting and hurt. Conventional wisdom holds that they are choosy with their friends, they’re prudes one moment and politician-like the next.