ode to friends and the moon

We went to our local FCC Moon Festival this evening, with thoughts of our little girl who we've been waiting to meet.
We've never been to one of the FCC 'Moon Festivals' so we thought we'd try it. . .

We met a recent arrival from China, little Jack, while at the Moon Festival this evening. We also ran into Macy and Kara and mom - they have grown quite a bit! Our home study social worker was there with her daughter and we met some new families too.

We watched the little girls make paper lanterns. The Chinese legend of the Moon Festival was read to them before they 'marched' around with their lanterns.

A sidetrack: A friend of ours, who happens to be a school teacher, recently asked if we'd 'heard anything more from China'. I gave the usual response to which she responded, "By the time you get her, she will be in school already!! . . . which is OK . . . as long as she gets here!" That is about right at this rate. . . our baby girl may already be in school by the time we get her!

James (from Sudan), Enock and Lambert (from Burundi/Rwanda), who've helped make these past 1-2 months of waiting incredible, came with us. They have been in America almost 1.5 months now. They'd never been to this park by the lake / river - so we walked around it a bit. The weather was perfect, with a gentle breeze. Many sailboats were out.

The Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is a popular East Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or "Mooncake Festival" (it's the same as "Mid-Autumn Festival" but with different names).

The Moon Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.

The Moon Festival/Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as:

Eating moon cakes outside under the moon
Putting pomelo rinds on one's head
Carrying brightly lit lanterns
Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e
Planting Mid-Autumn trees
Lighting lanterns on towers
Fire Dragon Dances
Shops selling mooncakes, before the festival, often display pictures of Chang'e floating to the moon.

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.

While Westerners may talk about the "man in the moon", the Chinese talk about the "woman in the moon". The story of Chang Er and her flight to the moon, familiar to every Chinese citizen, is a favourite subject of poets. Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures who personify the moon, Chang Er lives in the moon. Tradition places Houyi and Chang Er around 2170 BC, in the reign of the legendary Emperor Yao, shortly after that of Huang Di.

The Moon Festival is also a romantic one. A perfect night for the festival is if it is a quiet night without a silk of cloud and with a little mild breeze from the sea. Lovers spend such a romatic night together tasting the delicious moon cake with some wine while watching the full moon. Even for a couple who can't 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. A great number of poetry has been devoted to this romantic festival.