Ni Haos and Shie Shies

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This past weekend was the Chinese Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival. The moon festival is the second most important festival in the traditional Chinese calendar and Mid-Autumn day is called so because the autumn season in the Chinese calendar is the seventh, eighth and ninth months. Because in Chinese culture the full moon is a symbol of family reunion, the Moon Festival is usually celebrated by a family reunion dinner followed by the eating of traditional moon cakes and gazing upon the full moon. The ingredients used in moon cakes differ from area to area in China, and include things like coconut paste, lotus seed paste, bean paste, vegetables, various fruits, seeds and nuts, egg yolk, chicken, ham or date paste. There are many myths and legends about the moon in Chinese Culture, hence the popularity of the Moon Festival. The best known myth is of Chang'er flying to the moon.

A long time ago there were 10 suns in the sky, causing great misery to the inhabitants of Earth, with the seas boiling, mountains falling and the Earth cracking. An expert archer named Hou Yi decided to help and took his bow and shot down nine of the ten suns. Because of this, the people of the Earth made him King. However, his pride soon lead him to become a horrible tyrant; drinking, womanising and killing people as he liked. He became much disliked by the people, and seeing that his days were numbered, he went to see Wang Mu, the Fairy Queen, in search of the elixir of immortality. Although he obtained the elixir, his wife Chang'er drank it before he could, to save the people from his tyranny. Chang'er was transported to the moon where she still lives today.



I was invited to have dinner with Danny's grandparents on Saturday night. After work, I met Danny at Jenny's Cafe and we walked to his grandparents' apartment where I met Danny's father, grandparents, aunt, and little cousin. Many "ni haos" were exchanged. We went for dinner at a Chinese restaurant near the Pyramid and I had my first Chinese dumplings (vegetarian of course!) and oh I must say that I can understand why the Chinese love dumplings so much!! They were delicious. We toasted many times throughout the night and left absolutely stuffed.

On Sunday (Mid-Autumn Day), I was invited to have dinner with Sophia's family. We took a cab to her grandparents' apartment and I met a ton of relatives... parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins (no brothers and sisters because of the one-child policy, of course). We had an amazing home-cooked Chinese dinner (they all commented on my excellent use of chopsticks!) and then sat around and ate fruit and mooncakes. We didn't get a chance to see the full moon because it was a cloudy and rainy night. I took a cab home in the pouring rain... down a street with currents and rapids (not even kidding). We drove by a guy on a bike and absolutley drenched him with a tidal wave of water. The taxi driver just laughed.

To top it off, I found out today that my students at Oma voted me Star Teacher of the month for August!! Star teacher! Yeaaaah.


Laura

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Photos

Mooncake!
There's only one kind of mooncake I tried that I like.. the fruit and nut kind. This is the date paste mooncake.

Family Photo
They rearranged the entire living room to take this shot! L-R top row is Sophia's Cousin, Aunt, Uncle, Mom, Dad, Uncle, Cousin, Aunt. L-R bottom row is Sophia, her Grandma, Grandpa, and me!

Sweety!
Just three years old, she and I have "shooting" wars with our finger guns! Her tongue is always out at me!

Comments

[Matticu]

guess what
Guess what laura? I'm a model!

[Randy]

YO
hi my little Laura what is up, I am glad you had fun at your Festival. It is too bad that it isn't the Chinese New Year. I would love to be there for that.