Moon Festival

Today, I awoke to the brightest and fullest moon of the year.

Although it's listed on our calendar as beginning today, I think the Moon Festival festivities began last night.  If we had not had such a busy weekend, I would have baked mooncakes yesterday with my kids and enjoyed family picnic under this beautiful moon.

This morning, I brought out some of my mooncake molds (they're really for cookies, but I don't bake the large mooncakes)

and "wacked" out some treats for my family. 

Traditionally, these are filled with red bean paste, but I used dried pineapple, coconut flakes and sugar as my filling.

So, what is the Moon Festival?  It is a celebration of the mid-Autumn harvest.  Like Thanksgiving, we gather our family to reflect our gratitude and enjoy the yummy recently harvested crops.  The mooncakes remind us of the folkstory of the Emperor, the Jade Rabbit and Chang'e, the Moon Goddess of Immortality.

I wish you a happy Moon Festival.  Give your loved ones an extra special hug under the moon tonight!