| On the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar,
the moon is round and the Chinese people mark their Moon
(or Mid-autumn) Festival. The round shape to a Chinese
means family reunion. Therefore the Moon Festival is a
holiday for members of a family to get together wherever
it is possible.
On that day sons and daughters will bring their family
members back to their parents' house for a reunion.
Sometimes people who have already settled overseas will
come back to visit their parents on that day.
As every Chinese holiday is accompanied by some sort
of special food. On the Moon Festival, people eat moon
cakes, a kind of cookie with fillings of sugar, fat,
sesame, walnut, the yoke of preserved eggs, ham or other
material. In Chinese fairy tales, there live on the
moon the fairy Chang E, a wood cutter named Wu Gang
and a jade rabbit which is Chang E's pet. In the old
days, people paid respect to the fairy Chang E and her
pet the jade rabbit.
The custom of paying homage to the fairy and rabbit
is gone, but the moon cakes are showing improvement
every year. There are
hundreds of varieties of moon cakes on sale a month
before the arrival of the Moon Festival this year. Some
moon cakes are of very high quality and very delicious.
An overseas tourist is advised not to miss it if he
or she happens to be in China during the Moon Festival.
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