It's the Chinese Moon Festival, y'all! The annual holiday celebrating the harvest and family. It's all about family reunions, eating outside under the moon, and being together. The legend is (short version) that Chang'e is the woman who lives in the moon; her husband, an immortal, lives on the sun, and the moon festival is the one time of the year when they can be together, when the moon and the sun pass each other on this day. The moon is at its fullest and brightest because of this. That's the waaay truncated and simplified version.
What that means for us is dim sum with 21 people in Chinatown, then making homemade mooncakes, then staying up late so that Bambina can see the full bright moon. Every year we take pictures of our night walk under the moon, so I'll post some on Monday. Bambina is so excited for this holiday. This whole week we've been going outside to see the moon go from a crescent to a half to a three-quarter...and tomorrow to full. It's so fabulous seeing her get so excited about being up late and seeing the moon morph just like in her favorite Eric Carle book, "Papa Please Get The Moon For Me."
She also loves to hear about what people in China are doing "right now." So we're actually going to yell "Happy Moon Festival!" at the top of our lungs when we wake up because the moon festival moon will already be out in China (it being 17 hours ahead). She's so excited that she is going to dress in her traditional qipao dress tomorrow--and she insists that I wear mine too. Y'all. This is a formal outfit. Long, with that famous collar. It's waaay more than I'd usually wear to dim sum, but when I suggested I wear something else she got upset and said, "But I want us to dress the same and look the same!" And since I can't be her mommy with dark brown hair and brown skin, the least I can do is be her mommy in a fancy qipao. So if you see a blonde lady in a traditional Chinese outfit on the T tomorrow, you'll know it's me.
Be sure to wish me a Happy Moon Festival. :)
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