1st Annual Harvest Moon Party

In China the Mid-Autumn Festival, or the Harvest Moon Festival is a major holiday. Inspired by my friend, Becky, we had our own version of a Harvest Moon Party Friday night with some friends.

At first, to make things a bit easier, we were going to order take out pizza. Living in the country by a small town, if you want it fairly fresh by the time it gets here, it's basically either pizza or subs for take-out. But I got to thinking, and thought that pizza just wasn't right for a Chinese Party! And it would be simple to make stirfry with 4 gals to chop the veggies.

Well, having daycare kids at my house until 5:45 and the party starting at 6:30...and being my usual self...I didn't have things prepared ahead of time like I wanted to. So we didn't eat until almost 8! So maybe next year we will do pizza. LOL! But it was fun working in the kitchen with my peeps. We thought maybe we'd build a mansion and all live together...

We had paper lanterns hung around the house, and a dragon from one light. And of course we had to eat with chopsticks! I was very impressed with my friends, I don't think anyone used a fork! Of course, using garlic bread to push it around helps!




We ordered Moon Cakes from a Chinese bakery just for the experience, not for the taste! These were coconut flavored...and that's a duck egg yolk in the middle. Yum (not!). They were spendy things so maybe next year we'll stick with the ones the kids and I made...which are more like cookies and actually taste good. And just think...Mooncakes are a treat for the Chinese! We eat WAY to many sweets here in America...myself especially!







The kids made pictures about the moon or about things that they were thankful for, since the Festival is also one of thanksgiving about their harvest which is already collected. Here are a few.

They also put on a "parade" for us after digging around in our dress up box...
I read out loud about the Moon Festival in China...and then later on by the fire one of the most famous stories about the lady in the moon and the Jade Rabbit. Also by the fire (along with S'mores!) we all tried to remember on which of the seven days God created the moon, and then we read the passage from the Bible to see who was right. Can you remember without checking? Let me know and I'll tell you for sure...but no peeking!

Our friends said this should be our "1st Annual" and I'd have to agree. Here's the moon Friday night...no longer quite full, but just about.