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| from Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes |
This year the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival falls on Sept. 27th! As I've said before, the Moon Festival is one my favorite holidays. Now that I don't live in the city anymore, I can't just go pick up some mooncakes in Chinatown, which makes me feel a little sad. But I'm still going to celebrate!
Many of my books, from Thanking the Moon to Starry River of the Sky deal with Chinese moon myths. I have oodles of activity suggestions to help celebrate it! I even started a Moon Festival Activities Pinterest board as well as a Book list board in honor of the holiday!
The Moon Festival is basically a Chinese version of thanksgiving, centered around the moon. One big tradition of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is to share poetry--either ones you love or ones you, yourself, write!Me, personally, I've always thought of myself as more of a poetry-hack so I've always been a bit hesitant to share my poems. But over a year ago, my friend Janet Wong encouraged me to participate in her Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations and so I submitted one of my Moon Festival poems.
And, in honor of the upcoming Moon Festival I share it with you now:
On the Moon Festival
I am allowed to play
Outside tonight
Climb and slide and
SWING
Higher
Higher
I will knock on the moon
And the Moon Lady will say
Yes, tonight
The rabbit can come out to play
(Note: On the night of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, people send the Moon Goddess or Moon Lady a secret wish in hopes that she will grant it. The Moon Lady's companion is the Jade Rabbit. Read more here.)