Moon Festival

Moon Festival

Growing up in an agricultural village, my grandparents and parents have a close relationship with their neighbors. They exchange necessities and crops such as potatoes vegetable, and meat that they raise. During holidays, the elder in my family always invites close relatives, distant families, and good friends as well as their neighbors for a big meal to show appreciation and gratitude. Moon Festival, especially, is valued and celebrated today as one of the biggest holidays.

Before the day of Moon Festival, my entire family will gather at my grandparents’ house to prepare for the feast the following day. Children like me are often assigned with simple tasks such as placing table cloth on tables, moving chairs out from the garage, and polishing them until they are dustless. Adults, on the other hand, play a great role in preparation of food and traditional Moon Festival desert such as mooncakes of which the recipes has been passed on for generations. As the only person who knows how to successfully make mooncakes, my grandma cannot leave the kitchen where she steams the mooncakes and checks on the texture of the cakes every other minute by putting her fingers in a three hundred degree steamer to feel the softness of the mooncakes. When I pass by the kitchen to taste the snacks and pomelos she prepares for the next day, I can easily tell how painstaking it is to stay in that environment for hours by observing the perspiration dripping down from her forehead.

On the day of Moon Festival, adults, neighbours, and friends all arrive at my grandparents’ house at about ten o’clock to celebrate this holiday as one of the few days when they can reunite and see each other. The elders have the privilege of tasting the food first, and after they are done, it is then the children’s turn. Despite our hunger and eagerness for the ceremonial food including barbecue, honey walnut shrimp, garlic green beans, and bok choy, we must wait until the elders finish. Lucky enough, my grandmother always prepares extra food and store it “securely” so that the food does not run out when it is our time to eat. When everyone including the children finish eating and feel stuffed, the growing excitement in the house is noticeable. Knowing that everyone is waiting on something, my grandmother goes into the kitchen and brings out the last but certainly not the least dish of the afternoon: mooncakes on a big tray more than enough for all of us to have until we feel content and satisfied. The afternoon then ends with a delightful sweetness in my mouth and a fresh memory of everyone.