[This is my Trail] 中秋节快乐! Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

[Rachelle]

It is again the Mid-Autumn Festival in China. Click here for the post I wrote about the holiday last year. Basically, it's a big holiday to get together with your family and eat mooncakes under the full moon. This year's new development in Kunming was ridiulously expensive Haagen Dasz ice cream mooncakes. We tried to buy them last night, but they were all sold out (and way too expensive anyway). Last night the sky was clear and the moon was very bright. I ate a very yummy ham mooncake, but that's the only one I had. The ham ones are famous in Yunnan because our ham is well-known throughout China. Apparently some other places in China have really good nut mooncakes, but I have not tried those.

A new tradition I learned about this year was paper lanterns on which you write your wishes and then put a candle in and send them floating up towards the moon (sometimes called Sky Lanterns). I was downtown last night and there were some that had gone so high up into the air. It was really cool. We also had to dodge one that had burnt out and was crashing back down. Haha. I'm so mad I didn't have my camera with me because I would have gotten some cool pictures. Everyone was setting off these lanterns from a place downtown called 金马璧鸡坊 Jin Ma Bi Ji Fang (see picture) and it would have been awesome to get pictures of the floating lanterns in front of those gates. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Since last year, China has changed their holiday policy. Beginning this year (in 2008), the May holiday was only 2 days (down from one week in the past), but now there are days off for several more traditional holidays including the Mid-Autumn Festival, Tomb Sweeping Day, the Dragon Boat Festival, a half-day for Youth Day, and a half-day for Women's Day. Everyone in China still has a week off for the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and National Day. All that to say, I have today off of work! So a four day work week this week and three days next week and then I will be on my way to the US of A!

--
Posted By Rachelle to This is my Trail at 9/14/2008 11:12:00 PM