Mid-Autumn Festival

We just celebrated our first Chinese Holiday: Mid-Autumn Festival!  The festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, during a full moon, which falls in late September/early October!  It is also called the Moon Festival because of the celebration's association with the full moon, as well as traditions of moon worship and moon gazing.

The holiday brings family and friends together to give thank for the harvest (or harmonious unions) and to pray for babies, a spouse, beauty, longevity or a good future.

Mooncakes are a must have during this holiday and they are everywhere!  We saw people carrying boxes and boxes of mooncakes to take to friends and family.  There are several different kinds and I was able to try two different ones thanks to coworkers.  Typical Chinese mooncakes are round in shape, and measure around 4 inches in diameter and 2 inches in thickness.  Most mooncakes consist of a pastry skin enveloping a sweet, dense filling.  I am not exactly sure what was inside the first one I had - maybe a sweet bean paste.  The second one was filled with a minced meat, known as a Suzhou (pronounced "soo-joe") Style mooncake.  Suzhou is a town about 31 miles from Wuxi.