This fall we celebrated one of the two most important holidays here in China – the Mid-Autumn Festival. There are many legends about how this day was started in 1000 BC having to do with the moon goddess, worshipping the moon, and rebelling against the Mongols. Now families get together to watch the moon, said to be the brightest of the year, and people give moon cakes to each other and decorate with paper lanterns. Moon cakes are little single serving round cakes filled with lotus paste or black sesame seeds mainly. There are some made with other ingredients as well and for the westerners, Haagen-Dazs now makes them! (click here to view pictures.)
We participated in the holiday by giving and receiving moon cakes and buying lanterns for the girls to carry at the festival. It was an interesting time for us to see more of the Chinese culture. (pictures are under Blogroll)