Full Moon Festival

"The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. It's also known as the Mid-autumn Festival. Chinese culture is deeply imbedded in traditional festivals. Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the West, the Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese.

The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. Legend says that Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since. You might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is also an occasion for family reunions. When the full moon rises, families get together to watch the full moon, eat moon cakes, and sing moon poems. Even if family members cannot be together, they can still enjoy the night by watching the moon at the same time, so it seems that they are together at that hour."

The moon cake is the food for the Moon Festival. Moon cakes are eaten at night with the full moon in the sky. Here is a picture of a typical moon cake:

We were thrilled to be able to spend the Moon Festival with our friends and to begin what we hope is a yearly tradition.

At the beginning of the festivities, the kids took advantage of the warm weather

and enjoyed playing outside...

Auntie Lianne entertaining Maelyn...

Getting ready to enjoy some Chinese food for dinner...

My first moon cake cookies -- they were a success!

Maelyn was a lucky little girl and received birthday gifts from friends who hadn't

been able to make it to her birthday party...

After dinner I set up the table with the crafts -- and the kids made beautiful lanterns! Once they were finished and we had our glow sticks and bracelets in place, we headed outside for our walk around the neighbourhood.

Trying to get a picture with all seven kids looking at the camera...

The Moon Festival is for spending time with those that you love. We were lucky enough to be able to spend time with our wonderful friends, who are more like family, and feel blessed that they are a part of our lives.

Happy Moon Festival to all of our family and friends!