While the Chinese celebrated China’s Mid-Autumn festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing, Lily munched on mooncakes, a Chinese pastry commonly eaten during the festival. We got together with the other families with children from Lily’s orphanage and sent several boxes of these goodies to the children there so they could partake in the celebration as well. While Lily loved the interesting flavor of these famous pastries, John and I took a pass. It must be an acquired taste!
Kids in orphanage enjoying mooncakes
What is the Moon festival?
The Moon festival (also called the Mooncake or Mid-Autumn festival) falls on September 14th in the year 2008. Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year, the Chinese celebrate "zhong qiu jie." Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface. The legend surrounding the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, his wife found the pill, took it, and was banished to the moon as a result. Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival.
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