My Journal

This is the week that leads up to National Day and the Mid-Autumn Festival. It becomes a weeklong holiday for most people and a vacation week. It is interesting to see that other cultures also celebrate the harvest and bounty from the agriculture of the Earth. This week was spent obtaining and giving out gift boxes of Moon Cakes, which celebrate the harvest moon. At first, I thought this to be more like the fruitcakes that people give and receive politely during the winter holiday period. The moon cake is a small, dense (more muffin or pound cake like) with a filling in the center. They come in elaborate boxes and are shared. The most common filling is an egg yolk, which was interesting but this brought up the fruitcake analogy to me. However, we also got some wonderful surprises: nuts, pork and ice cream! And unlike fruitcake, these do have a shelf life.