the one about a rabbit, a woman and, well, the moon…

Meandering down the path by the moonlit water, dodging low-hanging willow branches and occasionally looking up at the moon or across at the juxtaposed skyline of mountains and city lights, I almost bumped into a young boy bouncing along with his parents, licking his ice cream cone with an oh-too-familiar look on his face. It’s the look when you’re out late with your parents and don’t want to bring up anything that would remind them of their magnificent mistake, their ridiculous folly, their outrageous oversight; you are out past your bedtime. How late can I stay up watching movies on Christmas Eve? Or what about trick-or-treating…I wonder if they’ll EVER make me go to bed if I keep on getting candy and can somehow find the energy to fight back this overwhelming urge to yawn.

But on occasion it’s ok to stay out late, and tonight was one of those nights, for every child, student, couple, family, and grandparent seemed to have flocked to the West Lake in Hangzhou to enjoy the yearly mid-Autumn festival. The moon was not only at its fullest, but also its closest and brightest of the entire year (so much so that it hurt to look at it for too long), and luck just happened to have it that, out of all the tours in all the countries, and out of all the cities in China, not to mention our ever-changing schedule, we should end up in Hangzhou, a small heaven on earth a few hours out of Shanghai, on the week of this national celebrated holiday.

Every year hundreds of thousands flock to Hangzhou, the Hamptons of Shanghai, if you will, to spend a day or a week wandering around the 1,400 acre lake, and this year I was no exception. I’d taken over 400 pictures already that day, having been out walking since 11:30am, stopping at pagodas, Solitary Hill, temples, crossing bridges and causeways, watching fisherman make a long awaited catch and seeing boat after boat set off from the dock to make its way to one of the two islands within the lake boasting even more of the most beautiful places on earth. The lake, itself, is surely one of the most magnificent sights I have seen, but perhaps the beauty of the day for me was at night, when the wonderful energy, the openhanded and benevolent atmosphere of families and friends welcomed the long-awaited festival and anyone who wished to partake in that experience.

They say it is proper to give a mooncake to someone on the mid-autumn day festival (a funny pastry with an egg yolk in the middle…we had see these sold for the past month all over China), and it will prove quite telling how many friends you have at the end of the night when you count how many mooncakes you received. I have also heard, and perhaps this is more of an invitation than a tradition, that one should ask to be told the story of the mid-autumn day in order to get the full experience. And so, as the evening wound down (for me, not for the rest of town), a few students came our way inquiring about our hometowns, and so we subsequently asked them to tell their tale, which I would share with you here had I a) understood them or b) understood the story. Something about a potion, a woman and a rabbit and, well, needles to say, the moon. Google it if you want, but I recommend simply asking a local…that is if you ever happen to be in Hangzhou for the mid-autumn festival.