Moon festival, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival, is on August 15 according to the Chinese Lunar

calendar. Chinese people will get together with their family members and share this special

moment under the full moon night. Chinese people call it 中秋节 [zhōng qiū jié],

which is also celebrated in many Asian countries. So what do Chinese people do to celebrate

this festival? Traditionally, family would get together to have a family reunion dinner,

followed by sharing moon cakes as a dessert, or some family would stay out and do moon

watching. Speaking of dessert, have you ever tasted moon cake before? A moon cake is a

type of Chinese baked good that Chinese people eat on Moon Festival. It comes with a nice

package since it is often a gift from family to family, friends to friends and even employees

to employers.

The most common and popular moon cake is this. When you look closer, you see the shape of

moon cakes are always round or square. It s because Chinese people see a moon cake as

a unity of family. And the way we cut a moon cake is the same as cutting a pizza. You can

see the stuffing. This is a lotus seed paste moon cake 莲蓉月饼 [ lián róng yuè

bǐng ]. The yellow part is yolk from a duck egg. And guess what? Double yolks are preferred

since it can be sure that each slide contains a bit of yolk. Sounds interesting, right?

A Moon cake is a heavy dessert so we have to share it with others. Or healthy people

who want to keep the tradition but worry about the calories in a moon cake may prefer snowy

moon cakes, called 冰皮月饼 [bīng pí yuè bǐng ] or fruit moon cakes 水果月饼

[shuǐ guǒ yuè bǐng] instead. What about coffee moon cake 咖啡月饼 [ kā fēi yuè

bǐng ] ? Well...call me old fashioned, but among all the choices, I still like the traditional

moon cake 莲蓉月饼 [ lián róng yuè bǐng ]. Come and experience this special

holiday in China when you get a chance. Or share our Moon cake tradition with people

you love. Enjoy moon watching wherever you are.

Happy Moon Festival! -中秋节快乐 [ zhōng qiū jié kuài lè ]!