The date of the mid Autumn festival is set by the lunar calendar (so the date changes every year), the nation has a 2 day holiday and the celebration is marked by the giving of "moon cakes".
The Mid Autumn Festival, also known as the Full Moon Festival, is celebrated on the first full moon in late September or early October. The festival is traditionally a harvest festival celebrating the end of the season and the beginning of the next, it is based on 3 key concepts - the gathering of the harvest, thanksgiving and prayer.
In this day and age, family and friends gather together, eat together, share moon cakes and wander down to the bund in the evening to get a good view of the full moon.
Moon cakes (pictured above) come in all shapes and sizes and are boxed up and decorated exquisitely . Moon cakes are given to friends, family and employees. Moon cakes are round pastries filled with a variety of fillings. Some sweet some savoury. They are eaten on the day of the full moon.
During the festival the streets are decorated with red lanterns that hang from light poles, float off into the night or float on the waterways. The lanterns signify fertility.
China has only 3 holidays which provide workers time off - The mid autumn festival, the National holiday (in October) and the Chinese New year. During these holidays Shanghai swells with the factory workers that travel in from the surrounding provinces. Many of these workers have never seen foreigners so we find we become quite the novelty.
Children are encouraged to speak to us using the only word of english they know "hello" , they ask to have their photos taken with us and men and women sidle up to us to get a closer look!
In another uniquely Chinese way a "holiday" doesn't quite mean what it means in our world. In order to have the Thursday and Friday off work all companies require their staff to make the time up - so everyone in China works the Sunday after the holiday!
For our part we travelled to Qiandao Hu (1000 island lakes) approximately 400 klm south west of Shanghai
Qiandao Hu is home to the largest national Park in China - a great place to cycle and chill out for a few days.
Check out our next post - a pictorial journey through Qiandao Hu!
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