China’s Mid-Autumn Festival starts today according to Suite101.com.
It is customary to have Moon-Watching parties, and offerings are still made to the Moon.
Around the world, Chinese and Vietnamese celebrate this festival.
For example, San Francisco’s Chinatown will host a festival street fair from September 18th to 19th in 2010. Over a hundred thousand people are expected to attend. Source: Moon Festival.org
Also known as the “Full Moon Festival,” the Mid-Autumn festival falls on the fifteen day of the eighth lunar month.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaFBLgaM3d4
To the Chinese, this festival is similar to the American Thanksgiving holiday, celebrating a bountiful harvest by coming together as families to eat, drink and be merry.
At this time, the moon’s orbit is at its lowest angle to the horizon, making the moon appear brighter and larger than any other time of the year.
There’s even a legend for eating Mooncakes. It seems that revolutionaries needed a way to bring the people together to rebel against the Yuan Dynasty. Source: The Legend of Eating Mooncakes
Discover China’s New National Holiday, The Rice Cake Festival
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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