Mid-Autumn Festival

One month in Hong Kong and we’ve already had two national holidays. This weekend was the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is the equivalent to the American Thanksgiving because most people travel to be with families and spend some time together.

There aren’t any big feasts or football, but there was a giant party at the end of my street with over 100,000 people. The entire park was decorated with paper lanterns and every kid makes a lantern each year and runs around with it on the festival night.

There were your basic Chinese entertainers; a woman contortionist that balanced a tray of wine glasses on her chin while she twisted into various pretzel shapes, a goofy looking man that wishes he could sing in Vegas, but his career only took him as far as public venues with crowds in the hundreds that stop while passing to see if his chin beard is real, and a dance troop dressed in ancient Chinese clothing that dances to Asian hip-hop.

We also ate moon cakes all week. The Hong Kongers love these things, but I haven’t met a single Westerner that can stand them. It’s a small cake that looks yummy, but its dry and the filling is either a semi-sweet vegetable like lotus or its filled with multiple egg yolks. I tried about five different types and couldn’t finish one.

Every night in Hong Kong there is a giant light display on the harbor. All of the big skyscrapers are decorated top to bottom with bright lights and at eight o’clock the lights dance and the entire skyline goes crazy with lasers and spot lights. I just moved into my real apartment this weekend and I sat on my bed last night to watch the light show from my room. I forgot it was a holiday and there ended up being a thirty minute fireworks display in front of my building. It was a nice welcome to the neighborhood gift from the city.