Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Mid-Autumn Festival

It's this time of year again!  Mooncakes, Dragon dances, and paper lanterns! Have you guessed yet? Well yes, it's the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival!

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, which usually falls in September or October in the solar calendar.  This year it will fall on September 30th.

I love the eat the sweet mooncakes with some hot tea! My friend just gave me the mooncake below! Can't wait to eat it tomorrow for dessert!

I went to the library to find some books to read to the kids about the festival.  I was quite excited when I  found one about the festival and also a few more books about Chinese culture.  I am showing a few below that I like very much.

Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival


It's written and illustrated by Grace Lin who is the author of quite a few books. There are not a lot of text but the pages are filled with colorful illustrations. It's simple enough to read to a toddler but yet the older kids can learn a few basic information from the books as well.

Dim Sum for Everyone!


The kids love to eat Dim Sum so this book was very liked. The children especially enjoyed reading the name of the dishes they have tried when they went to eat at the restaurant.

Fortune Cookie Fortunes


Who doesn't like Fortune cookies? It's such a fun way to end a meal and we all share and giggle at the fortune we read in our cookie!  The kids like to read this book (though not as much as the Dim Sum book).

Bringing in the New Year


Another fun book frrom Grace Lin. This one is about the Lunar New Year.  There are some cool illustrations of paper/fabric dancing dragons and lions but it is my least favorite among her collection though because I felt so much more could have been said about the Lunar New Year.  But then again it's really a book for kids so I think she wanted to keep it simple enough for them.


4 comments:

  1. C'est une jolie collection et très bien pensée qui plus est!

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    1. C'est une bonne introduction à la culture chinoise mais il y a si peu de texte! Il existe de meilleurs livres mais, hélas, ils ne sont pas disponibles à la bibliothèque.

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  2. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!!! More love! I love this festival and I'm so happy to see your treats and books, these are fabulous! I think you would enjoy seeing this post that I did last year around this time, sorry for spamming but I think you'd enjoy it :)

    http://www.juliasbookbag.com/2011/09/japanese-fall-festival.html

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    1. No worries! I don't consider that as spam because I love it too :D Miss J looks so cute in her kimono! I have not seen any Japanese fall festival around here though :( I guess we don't have a big enough JP community in this city.

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