Mooncakes & The Mid-Autumn Festival

Yesterday was the last day of the 'Mid-Autumn Festival', a Chinese celebration involving beautiful lanterns hung in the trees and the giving and receiving of 'mooncakes'. If you've never heard of a mooncake then you are missing out! These small cakes containing lotus, yam or a plethora of other fillings, sometimes contain a whole egg yolk to represent the moon.




The story of the Mid-Autumn festival is gorgeous... A pair of beautiful young lovers are separated and have difficulty meeting up. They arrange hundreds of meetings but their plans are always thwarted and they pine for each other alone... Until, they manage to find a way to meet up - on the moon! On arrival there are lots of rabbits running around on the surface of the moon, so as part of the festival children carry around lanterns shaped like rabbits with bright candles inside, just gorgeous.

We headed down to Chinatown after work last night to enjoy some of the sights... a grea way to end an intense weeek of meetings!