Happy Mid-Autumn Festival Everyone!
This is a week when all over China and other parts of Asia, people celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Zhongqiu Festival or Moon Festival. It is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar. This year it falls on Wednesday, September 22. The date parallels the autumnal equinox of the solar calendar, when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest. The Mid-Autumn Festival dates back over 3000 years and is one of the most important holidays in the Chinese calendar.
Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon and eat moon cakes under its glow. Typical moon cakes are either round or rectangular puck-shaped pastries. They have a thin crust that surrounds a thick pasty filling that may contain yolks from salted duck eggs, lotus seed paste, bean paste, jujube paste or nuts and seeds. Traditional moon cakes have an imprint on the top with the Chinese characters for longevity or harmony. I have yet to try one, but I'm sure I will before the week is out! One sees moon cakes for sale wherever one shops!
It it a school holiday for DAIS on Wednesday, so tomorrow evening after school my friend Nancy and I will be hopping in our hired car and heading north through the harvest land to Dandong for a short holiday. We will stay the night and enjoy the Moon Festival with the local people and wake up in the morning to see the eastern most section of the Great Wall of China. To say I am excited about this trip is an understatement of all understatements!
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