Autumn Moon Festival

"The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most important holidays in the Chinese calendar. It is a celebration of family and referred to as “Family Reunion Day.” Falling on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is a Chinese celebration of abundance and togetherness. This year the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival was celebrated on September 25th, 2007. This is considered the ideal time when the moon’s orbit is at its lowest angle to the horizon, making the moon appear at its fullest and brightest. To the Chinese, this festival is similar to the American Thanksgiving holiday, celebrating a bountiful harvest. Compared to many Chinese festivals that are inundated with vibrant colors and sounds, the Mid-Autumn festival remains more subdued. It is traditionally celebrated outdoors under the moonlight where people eat moon cakes and gaze at the moon. Traditionally, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon. On this day people will look up at the full silver moon, drinking wine to celebrate their happy life or thinking of their relatives and friends far from home, and extending all of their best wishes to them. Family members throughout the world are united under one moon."

On this stormy evening we looked to the moon and prayed for our "Chinababy". Although we are half a world away from each other we are in some way under the same moon. We dream that next year we will be celebrating together under that moon with our child and giving thanks to their birthparents.