Mooncake Madness

I am now on a wonderful little vacation called National Holiday. Tomorrow, October 1st, was when Mao declared the People's Republic of China in 1949; hence the National part of National Holiday celebration. Apparently, all of China is going to be crazy with fireworks and general chaos--should be fun! We have the whole week off because the 6th is also another celebration, the Mid-Autumn Festival. There will be a full moon and all Chinese families get together, have a nice meal, look at the full moon, and eat mooncakes. I'm not really sure how to describe mooncakes (I'm so happy I can post pictures!), the only comparison is to Christmas fruitcake, at least in texture (and even a bit in taste :) They're a huge deal and pretty expensive. Our school was kind enough to buy us some mooncakes, so even we could participate in this celebration. In true Wuxi teacher fashion, we made our own celebration and decided to taste the mooncakes together. Here was the result:



This is the bag that the mooncakes came in. I had to bring that home on my bike--I must say it was quite the balancing act. The Chinese believe that the color red brings good luck, so there will be a fair amount of red visible in the following pictures.



This is the box containing the mooncakes. The small squares are the different varieties of mooncake and the middle rectangle is...



Silverware! Yes, the box even included small, REAL, silverware. How cute!



My attempt at being Vanna White with Lindsey in the background.



A combination of everyone's assorted mooncakes (it makes for a more exciting picture). I'm holding one of the actual mooncakes in my hand.



This was the table after we tasted all the mooncakes. I must say they are an acquired taste but I'm sure it will grow on me in the next few days. I even got a set of mooncakes from a student, how sweet is that?!?

Mooncakes. A great Chinese tradition. Stay tuned for a posting on another tradition--the teacher party for National Holiday.

rpm