As much as I like to give you a perfect explaination of the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival, I found myself is short of words, as well as time today. So, if you are interested in learning more about this traditional Chinese festival, you can read it here. Also, Autumn Belle at "My Nice Garden" wrote a sieries of posts about "Mid-Autumn Festival", and I am sure you will enjoy her beautiful writings very well.
The full moon is also a symbol of reunion for Chinese. So usually family would get together on this day to enjoy a nice dinner, and then go outside to look up the moon, eat the moon cakes and spread the good wishes to the loved ones. We did eat moon cakes today, and I also took a picture of this full moon.
When I looked up the moon, I was thinking about my family in China who was also looking the same moon (12 hours earlier though), and felt the closeness to them.
Let me contribute some flowers currently blooming in my garden to this beautiful Mid-Autumn Festival night without much wordings... I have purposely chosen those flowers with cool soothing tone to match the silver moon light tonight.
Happy Mid Autumn Festival, My Friends!
Ami, thank you very much for the kind mention. I like the words, Hua Hao Yue Yuan Ye. From the way you have described, it sounds very romantic indeed. And yes, when I look at the moon, I too have asked myself if people who are separated by vast distances can look at the same moon and feel the closeness of their loved ones on this day.
ReplyDeleteYour lovely flowers are perfect for the season. Happy Mid Autumn Festival!
Just look at those Cat Whiskers and that double Datura! Beautiful post.
ReplyDeleteJust beautiful Ami! My hubby and I were admiring the moon just this morning on the way back from the gym. It is gorgeous right now. Those begonia blossoms look like they are literally dripping from the plant. And the Duranta is just lovely.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love your moon-inspired blooms, Ami! The Datura metel and Plumeria pudica are two of my favorites. So perfectly beautiful! Love that you shared some of your Chinese culture as well! How fun it would be to have a family tradition of gathering to eat moon cakes on a full moon.
ReplyDeleteNeat to learn of the Mid-Autumn Moon festival. I am not sure just what a Moon cake is but but I do like banana moon pies.
ReplyDeleteAmi, thank you for telling us about one of your Chinese festivals. What a peaceful, happy, romantic time! I remember the moon two nights ago, on the 22nd...it was VERY bright!!! I'm touched by your description of gazing at the same moon as your family and feeling the closeness it brings. What a wonderful thought and feeling of kindred hearts! I love your photos...what is the first one?!?!
ReplyDeleteAutumn Belle: You are welcome! I really enjoyed your Mid autumn festival posts.
ReplyDeleteGlad that you liked words "Hao Yue Yuan Ye". To be honest, it is quite difficult to translate the real meaning of something from one language to another, since certain thing comes with the language and the culture, and hard to convey by simple translation.
Darla: thanks! That Cat whiskers is my favorite of this month! It is just such a great performer!
ReplyDeleteNanaK: Glad that you noticed the moon that morning. I always love looking at the moon, which gives me different feelings at different time.
ReplyDeleteI love that dripping effect of the begonia blossoms as well. Very dainty and pretty :)
FG: I am so glad that Datura comes back in full after the catepillar defoliated it completely last month. It is a quick grower and blooming very often.
ReplyDeleteDo you notice there are two kinds of plumerias in my post? The first one is plumeria pudica picture, and the second one is Plumeria rubra. The rubra I started as cutting, and I am so glad that it finally blooms.
Sandune:
ReplyDeleteThe mooncake is kind of desert with sweet filling inside. If you are interested, you can click two links I put in the post, where they have good description of moon cakes.
Kimberly: Yes, Moon and moonlight is always somehow romantic and sentimental to me, especially at mid-autumn festival. While my family lives so far away from me, I do feel the closeness thinking they can look the same moon from the other side of the globe.
ReplyDeleteThe first flower is dragon wing begonia flowers. It blooms in cluster and dropping from the leaves. I just love it!!!
Very pretty flowers for the Mid-autumn festival. Thanks for sharing info. about this festival with us, and I hope you enjoyed your celebration.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful photograph of the moon Amy! And your flowers are a delight! I love the cat's whiskers. Another blogger here in Texas blogged about her Cat's Whiskers blooming and I decided I'd love to get some.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
ReplyDeleteHappy mid-autumn festival to you too. Hope you enjoyed some mooncake as well!
Yes, I have P. pudica and P. rubra both as well, though they both have suffered damage from our past two winters. Did you know that P. pudica roots just as easily as rubra? I once had 12 "Bridal Bouquets" in my garden, as they were so easy to root from cuttings. Then the frost did most of them in. I do like the rubras better, though, as the scent is heavenly....
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