Mid-Autumn Festival

 I wish I were still a child who was interested in everything. I remember that I often longed for the Mid-Autumn Festival in my childhood. However, I’m not sure from which year on I’ve lost the interest. Like this year, I was only  aware of it a couple of days before the day, when I found Mum was busy buying mooncakes.

The two boys in the family are still at the ages that they could easily be curious about anything. They were giggling in the garden while holding the little lanterns, and chased each other merrily.

Mum had prepared some pastries as snacks for us to admire the moon in the garden.

Mid-Autumn Festival is the second most important traditional festival in Chinese culture, only after the Spring Festival. The moon at this night is usually considered as the brightest and most beautiful all over the year. It is a day for people to gather together and miss those whom they love and live far away. Despite people are living in different locations, we share the same moon. Thus, people are connected to each other at this night, while they raise their heads to admire the same moon.

The food Mum prepared for us was much simpler than what was usually eaten on this day in China. In China, we often have taros and fried river snails.

Besides China, many other places in Asia celebrate this festival, despite the forms and traditional meaning might be different. In Korea, it is often considered as the Korean Thanksgiving Day.

Autumn Moon Over a Calm Lake is a well-known piece of music. This is the music I play on xiao flute almost every year. This year, however, I tried to sing!