ススキ狩りしてお団子作って
今夜（10月1日）は完璧なお月見の夜となりました。朝はいつもとは違うルートでススキ探し。けれど見つけるのはなかなか大変。あっても手が届かなかったり取りにいけない山肌にあったり往来の激しい道路の反対側に見えたり、危険を伴いながら何とかススキを確保。明日からの墨画展の準備を画家の横田順さんとお手伝いの福山敬之さん（画家）が午後いっぱい掛かってしてくださり、お帰りになった時は日も暮れていました。
それから私はお団子作って縁側にお月見の用意。空は澄み、星の輝きをあちこちに散りばめながら十五夜の月が凛と姿を見せていました。昔、香港でこの日を迎えた時は見たこともないぐらい人が出て賑やかに中秋節を祝っていました。月餅というお菓子はこの日のためにあることも知りました。日本では雰囲気が違って静かに月を愛でます。お月様にそっと手を合わせるという感じでしょうか。
Tonight was a perfect night for moon viewing. In order to find Japanese pampas grasses to display for moon viewing I took a different route for my morning walk. However it was very hard to find. Even though I found them, I couldn’t reach them or I had to climb up the mountain slope or I needed to cross the road which was very busy with traffic. Anyhow I got some of them. Since we are going to open an exhibition of Bokuga (Sumi ink painting) by Sunao Yokota from tomorrow, Ms. Yokota along with Mr. Fukuyama who is also a painter there to help her, came to display the paintings. They took many hours to prepare and it was dark outside when they left. Then I started to make plain dumplings to offer the moon and presented them with Sake. The sky was clear, stars were shining, and the dignified-looking full moon appeared in the sky. I remember when I was in Hongkong on this day, so many people came out to celebrate the moon festival. It was so lively and I knew that Geppei (moon cake) was very special just for this day. On the other hand, the Japanese way to celebrate is very different and we just view the full moon quietly. Some people pray to the moon by putting their hands together.
2020/10/01
