What is Mid-Autumn Festival?

中秋节  （zhong qiu jie）

What and When is Mid-Autumn Festival?

The joyous Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, around the time of the autumn equinox. According to the lunar year, Mid-Autumn festival of 2012 year is TODAY, Sept 30th.

This day was also considered as a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain had been harvested by this time and food was abundant. Food offerings were placed on an altar set up in the courtyard. 

Why do we celebrate it? 
There is a beautiful story behind this festival. 

What is moon cake? 
We LOVE to have moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival. It has always been a child's sweetest dream when celebrating it. For generations, moon cakes have been made with sweet fillings of nuts, mashed red beans, lotus-seed paste or Chinese dates wrapped in a pastry. Sometimes a cooked egg yolk can be found in the middle of the rich tasting dessert. Nowadays, there are hundreds varieties of moon cakes on sale a month before the arrival of Moon Festival. 

BTW, I found them sold in COSTCO around every September.  Four moon cakes in one box. 

1st Grade numbers and body parts

Numbers

• 1-10 and gestures in China 
    It is different to do 1-10  using one hand in China than in US.
    Yes, just one hand to do all numbers! 

 Watch the video below and find out how to do that! 

Body Parts

 Head 头 (tou)

• Mouth 嘴巴 (zui ba)

• Shoulders 肩膀 (jian bang)

• Nose 鼻子 (bi zi)

• Knees 膝盖 (jian bang )

• Feet 脚 (jiao)

• Arms 胳膊 (ge bo)

• Eyes 眼睛 (yan jing)

• Ears 耳朵 (er duo) 

And we also learning the body parts song. It is so fun to sing this song and dance to point to our body parts.  Check it out on youtube: