The Mid Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节Zhōngqiūjié) is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. Since people consider the full moon as the symbol of reunion and satisfaction, the festival is also called the Festival for Reunion. The Mid-Autumn Festival of 2012 falls on September 30th. Traditionally on this day, family members and friends will gather together and enjoy pomelos and mooncakes while admiring the bright harvest moon. The mooncake has sweet and salty flavors with meat, egg yolk or vegetable fillings. It is also carved with decorative patterns and words.  Brightly lit lanterns are often carried around by children. In some parts of the country, people also send airborne paper lanterns to the sky and pray that their wishes written on the lantern will come true. Riddles are written on pieces of paper and posted on lanterns or walls. Any one solving the riddle is awarded a prize. You may also see people burning incense and performing fire dragon dances.

Legend about the Mid-Autumn Festival

The story of Chang E and her flight to the moon is familiar to every Chinese. Although there are many variations of the story, the main characters involved are Hou Yi, the Archer, Chang E, the Goddess of the moon, and the Jade Rabbit. In ancient times, there were ten suns circling together burning the earth. The Emperor of China commanded Houyi to shoot down nine suns and leave only one in the sky.  Houyi completed the task and was rewarded a pill that granted eternal life. Houyi took the pill home and gave it to his wife, Chang E. Chang E hid it in a treasure box at her table when, unexpectedly , it was seen by Peng Meng.  One day when Houyi was not home, Peng Meng held the sword at hand and forced Chang E
to hand over the pill. Knowing that she was unable to defeat Peng Meng, Chang E swallowed the pill and realized that she could fly. She couldn’t help but fly straight to the sky. 

When Hou Yi returned home in the evening, he knew from the maidservants what had happened. Houyi pursued Chang E halfway across the heavens but was forced to return to the earth due to strong winds. Chang E missed her husband very much so she chose to stay in the moon, the nearest place to the earth. She commanded the jade rabbit that lived on the moon to make another pill so that she would be able to return to the Earth. Whenever Hou Yi looked up into the night sky and called out the name of his beloved wife, he found that the moon was especially clear and bright. There was a swaying shadow on the moon as if his wife is looking down on him in the sky.

Learning about China

For the past few weeks, our class learned lots about China, it's culture, and history.  We learned about the time before China was formed and the importance of standard measurement.   We also learned about dynasties.  Last week, we learned about kites and silk.  This week, we learned about Qin Qi Hwang Di and Chinese inventions before the Qin Dynasty.  We also smelled different things that might make up the elixor of immortality.  Also, we have been filling in a map of China and the borders of the different dynasties.

The Town of Hwang Long Xi

We visited the town of Huang Long Xi  which is 50km away from Chengdu, China.  The town dates back 2000 years. Now seven ancient streets, which were built during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties, are well preserved. They are all paved with stone slabs, and the porch columns on both sides are lined up in an orderly way. This is a street view in the town.

 

They are interesting columns.

An old lady making a basket.

"One noodle shop" is making one long noodle.

The customers are eating the one noodle dish!

The river running through the town

The lady is rolling silk/cotton like candy and coating it with sweet soy bean flour.

Jay loved it!

They are making candy.

 It was a nice outing and was as if we went back in time!

Adventures in Italy

Our family went to Italy for two weeks this summer. We lived in Italy for two years before Jay started kindergarten at McDonald Elementary School.  So it was very nice to be back to meet Jay's old classmates and teacher in Trani, the town we lived in, in Southern Italy, Puglia province.  If you look at a map of Italy, many people think it is shaped like a boot kicking a soccer ball.  The heel of the boot is Puglia, where we lived.

This is a street in Trani. As you can see, the road is made of cobble stones. Italian small towns have very narrow streets because the towns were formed a long time ago before cars were made. So, many of the streets only allow one car to drive down them. The result of that is that most of the streets in the town are one way streets so it's like a maze because the buildings were made out of  stone, and there are no clear landmarks!

We also visited an island, Sardinia, which is situated in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, closer to Africa than Italy.  The color of the sea there is a blue that we had never seen before. Jay and his brother went to the beach for most of time during the day.

We took a boat to visit the Gulf di Orosei, on the east coat of the island.

These are houses in Cagliari, Sardinia's capital.

We could see wild flamingos resting in the city.

They are flying wild flamingos!

This is the Sardinian bread, "Pane Carasau". Sardinia has more sheep than it has people. The bread was conceived for shepherds, who used to stay far from home for months at a time. Pane carasau can last up to one year if it is kept dry. This bread is flat and very light. We couldn't stop eating!

Gelato!

These are basics of Italian cusine: tomatoes, olives, and mozzarella on the Italian bread!

Interior videos of opening day...

For those who missed opening day and want to look inside the new school...

The hallway...

Room 206, 2nd Grade Literacy, Ms. Kathleen's room, Part I

Room 206, 2nd Grade Literacy, Ms. Kathleen's room, Part II

Sneak Preview - Keiko Sensei's room 207, 1st and 2nd grade Japanese

Keiko Sensei asked me to pass this along...

Here are the special features of her room...

Sneak Preview - Ms. Kathleen's Room 206 (2nd grade Japanese)

The school is closed to the public but teachers have limited, restricted access so we can finally UNPACK all the classroom supplies and set up our rooms.  I was there Friday, 8/17th on that 92F day.  The room in the morning was quite pleasant.  The old fashion ceiling fan and open windows air conditioning worked beautifully and keep the room temperature cool.  The hardwood floors were gleaming and everything looks lovingly restored; it was a welcoming space.

Here is a video overview of the room with furniture.

Here is a video of a really cool feature of the room.

September 5th, here we come!