Hello all,

Here in Hong Kong, we have just celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival (OK, it was last weekend, but it's taken me a little while to get my bloggin' act together). I'm amazingly busy for someone with no job and no "right to work," since I won't have a Hong Kong Identity Card until at least February. Among other things, I met a sea captain named Ah Gan (pronounced A GUN, as in "don't move, I've got a gun," but he doesn't, or at least I hope not). Ah Gan works for some bazillionaire guy, but when he's not chauffering the bazillionaire around the ocean, we meet up at this floating restaurant called Jumbo and eat things I can't pronounce or understand (and I'm sure it's better that way), and we try to teach each other our languages. He's much better than me -- I'm trying to help Ah Gan learn the past and future tenses in English, he's helping me count to 10 in Cantonese. The first things he always does when I say anything is laugh. Is this a good sign?

About the Mid-Autumn Festival: The Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Lunar calendar which is full moon. Got that? Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays (Chinese New Year is the other) and it is legal holiday in several countries. It was a holiday here on Saturday (so Allison didn't get a day off -- thanks for nothing) because people traditionally work Monday through Saturday.

Asian family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. Moon cakes are made of ground lotus and sesame seed paste, egg-yolk and other ingredients. They sell these moon cakes everywhere (even Starbucks). We tried many varieties and did not care for any of them, unfortunately. They seem to be an acquired taste, like, oh, eating tin foil, or gargling with hummus, maybe.

Along with the cakes, shops sell colored Chinese paper lanterns in the shapes of animals, and more recently, in the shapes of airplanes and space ships. Other customs include burning incense, planting sweet-olive trees, lighting lanterns on towers, and fire dragon dances which we saw!

Moon worshipping dates back to the ancient Xia, and Shang Dynasties (2000 BCE-1066 BCE). The festival also commemorates a 14th Century uprising against the Mongols. Because the Mongols did not eat moonckaes (and I understand why!), the rebels wrote the call to revolt on pieces of paper and embedded them in cakes that they smuggled to their compatriots.

Enough about the history! We went to the festivities at Victoria Park. They had traditional dancing, singing, opera and these volcano-like things that had a light show going on. There was a place to hang fish, or other animal-shaped wishes. Here is the link to our pictures (cut and paste into the internet window!)

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=hggnkpd.6m74lq7h&Uy=-ytm20j&Ux=1

Then we went in search of the fire dragon. It was quite a draw and the streets were packed. The idea is to make a lot of noise and burn incense to scare away the ghost of the dead. When we finally saw the dragon, our eyes stung and we could hardly breathe due to all the incense. It was a long long long thing of wire and straw with burning incense stuck it –anyone thinking fire hazard??? However, those next to us thought the most amazing sight was Allison in a skirt, perched on my shoulders, trying to film it all! I think a lot of people in Hong Kong posted photos of this crazy Western couple on their blogs. We took some video of the whole festivities posted on YouTube -- A Hong Kong Chronicles first! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo3YYZXN1pA

Hope you are well! We are getting ready to go to Shenzen, China, in a week -- I'll tell you about it next time.

All best thoughts,

David Ratner