Shunyi District, Beijing, China

The Moon Festival, or Mid-Autumn Festival is a harvest festival celebrated notably by the Chinese and Vietnamese people.  The festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar with full moon at night and this year it fell on September 13th.  It is an occasion for outdoor reunions among friends and relatives to eat mooncakes and watch the moon, a symbol of harmony and unity.  Mooncakes are a rich pastry typically filled with sweet bean paste or lotus seed paste and are traditionally eaten during the festival.  There are other varied traditions and the girls helped guide our celebrations based on what they learned in school.  Dumplings and watermelon can be traditional, the eldest serves the food and has the first mooncake, we give mooncakes to our friends, and we all share the mooncakes while watching the full moon.  We loved the experience, even if we didn’t love the taste of the mooncakes!!