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Monday, September 28, 2015

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival 2015

It started with something very small, Maeve liked watching Ni Hao, Kai Lan a few years back. I liked how much aptitude she showed for languages so I encouraged it. Then there was an episode about the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, which is a very big deal in China.

After that episode, I did a quick Google and found out that the moon festival date was not too far off. So that year our family made lanterns together, and took a walk to see the moon and make a wish. It felt pretty magical.
We made papier mache lanterns which were fragile but beautiful

Maeve's first moon cake
The next year, I asked Maeve if she wanted to celebrate the Moon festival again, and she said a loud YES! So I wondered, why not invite some friends along?

Lots of adults helped decorate lanterns

We walked together to see the moon, which only appeared on our way back!
So it was a party! We ate moon cake, decorated pre-made lanterns (since I find papier mache very stressful) and loved having K's Chinese grandmother with us! She sang us a song about the moon jumping over a cow which the kids loved.

And this year we had some of the same friends, and some different ones. But the moon this year was very different! At moonrise it was bright orangey-pink and so beautiful! The kiddos had an amazing time. I read them a story from Zen Shorts (not Chinese, but I didn't care for the traditional Moon festival stories I checked out), and they decorated their lanterns and set out for the walk.







And now our little moon festival is growing every year. It fills my heart up to have such good friends with whom we can share our celebrations. Life is just dazzling sometimes.

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