Moon Festival

We are forever connected to the beautiful culture of China. 

One tiny way we can honor this connection is through

the celebration of holidays. 

A few weeks back we had the joy of celebrating the

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.   

On this night, families gather together for a time of

thanksgiving in honor of the harvest. 

It falls at the time of year that the moon is most round and full. 

The Chinese have night picnics, light lanterns and eat round food and moon cakes.

In our very American own way,

we celebrated in high style with a tree decorated with

ornaments and Chinese trinkets from our trip. 

As it should be, it was a family affair as we celebrated with
Grandma Kathy, Aunt Jen, Uncle Mike, Ceci, Ben and Molly. 

The weather didn't cooperate for our hopes of a moon picnic,

but it was still quite the fun family event.

We prepared for the festivities by making "moon cakes"

as we talked about how people in China might have been enjoying the holiday.

We played Chinese music and read

Thanking the Moon by Grace Lin and

Lin Yi's Lantern by Brenda Williams.

We ate homemade baked crab rangoon, chicken fried rice and
Mongolian beef with chopsticks. 
The giggling littles gave it their best effort!

Inspired by this bunny lantern (next year!), we

decorated and cut out paper lanterns. 

Much to the delight of the littles,

we hung glow sticks inside them and hung them from (chop) sticks.

As the adults sipped on Mandarin orange and green tea,

the littles marched themselves around in a glowing lantern parade.

A new tradition was born on this night. 
It was truly a special occasion, and one that we're certain that the kids will carry with them in their memories.