Full Moon on Mid-Autumn Festival

Today is Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节). It’s sort of the Chinese version of Thanksgiving, when families get together to have a big feast, to eat mooncakes (月饼), to enjoy the full moon, to celebrate the fall harvest (in theory anyway), and to read poems like this written almost a thousand year ago: 明月几时有？ 把酒问清天。 不知天上宫阙，今夕是何年。 我欲乘风归去。 惟恐琼楼玉宇， 高处不胜寒， 起舞弄清影， 何似在人间。 转朱阁，低绮户，照无眠。 不应有恨，何事长向别时圆？ 人有悲欢离合， 月有阴晴圆缺， 此事古难全。 但愿人长久， 千里共婵娟。 For me, Mid-Autumn Festival is a time when I become more homesick, miss my loved ones more, appreciate more for what I have, and remember more how I spent this holiday with mom. I have not been able to spend Mid-Autumn Festival with my family for many years, because it’s always in the middle of, well, autumn. I am so excited that I will visit China next month to spend some time with them. But now, all I can do is to look at the same full moon. Well, I get another problem even doing that. My window is facing north. Therefore, I almost never see a moon from my window. Not even on a day without fog. That doesn’t stop me from staring at the full moon—I got up on the roof (it’s not difficult, just take the stairs), and took a picture of the moon that my loved ones are also looking at tonight. However, I didn’t eat mooncakes or drink on the roof under the full moon. Mooncakes not only get more and more expensive and intoxicate (to the heart and body), they also become more of a thing to look at, including the package, than a delicacy. It will take me hours at a gym to burn one mooncake off my system. Plus, I already had some mooncakes and drank for our health with a bunch friends at Modern Thai this afternoon. Derik and Neil’s restaurant Modern Thai is one year old now. To celebrate the occasion, they closed the restaurant and held a party in the afternoon. http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf What a fantastic time! Now I wish tomorrow were not Monday!