Mid Autumn Festival

This weekend is Mid Autumn Festival. It celebrates the harvest, the brightest moon of the year and middle of the lunar calender autumn. It is a time to celebrate with family and enjoy the bright moon. Sunday and Monday are national holidays, so we give the ayi and driver the weekend off. I am guessing that Tom will have to work at some point.

Mid Autumn festival occurs on the 15th day of the eight lunar month. Chinese families come together at a family feast to celebrate the abundance of the harvest and the richness of life. Mooncakes, reported to have played an important part in the overthrow of Mongolian rule in the 14th century, are a traditional mid-autumn treat. Once “filled” with secret messages about rebellion, nowadays they contain plums, bean paste, and other delicacies. This year, the official festival falls on Sunday, September 14.

The kids learn about the festival at school and Huck made mooncakes at his school and Jack and Jed did the same at theirs. Mooncakes are a baked item filled with various Chinese delecacies. Lotus bean paste is one traditional filling. Huck was explaining to me what they learned about at school. He was telling me about moon cakes and the Chinese vegetable, which confused me since the cakes are usually filled with something sweet or, in some cases, egg yolk, to represent the moon. Finally, when I asked him to explain more, I realized he was talking about the Chinese FESTIVAL. Here you can see him explaining it.