Chinese Mid Autumn and Mooncake Festival

Kim and I took Hannah to the Chinese mid autumn and mooncake festival this past Saturday. It was an annual event put on by SACA, which is the Suncoast Association of Chinese Americans. They had all kinds of tradional Chinese food much like I had when I visited China. There was Chinese dancing and Hannah wore one of her Chinese dresses. It was a real fun night. I remember when Hannah was younger she would get so excited when she saw the moon. She loved the moon shining in her room so I figured this festival was right up her alley. She liked the dancing mostly. We think it is important to give Hannah an oppurtunity to expierence some of her cultural heritage. She is young and maybe does not understand much now but I think she will appreciate it one day. When she is older she might not want any part of it. That will be her choice and we support that.

The Mid Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calender usually around mid or late September. Mooncakes are the Chinese pastry traditionally eaten during the festival. Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular. The filling is usually made from lotus paste, but sometimes other fillings as well. It is surrounded by a thin crust which may be made with yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are rich and heavy compared with most Western cakes and pastries. They are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese Tea and are eaten at night by the light of the moon. Unfortunately, we did not get to have any mooncakes because there were not enough for non-members. We might join SACA so we can taste some maybe next time. I posted a picture so you can see what the mooncakes look like. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calender (the other being the Chinese New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomelos (chinese grapefruit) together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as: Eating mooncakes outside under the moon, carrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns ,burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees ,collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members, and the always popular fire dragon dances.

So, there is your Chines culture lesson for the day. I found most of it on wikipedia . That is such a great source for about anything you want to know more about.