Background: Anna Lim is a 21-year-old student living in Los Angeles, CA. She is a student at USC. She is currently studying electrical engineering.

Original script: “Hmm.. festivals that I celebrate with my family? Honestly the first one that comes to mind is the Mid Autumn Festival. It’s held on the night of a full moon but just being real with you, I don’t really remember the significance behind it. I just know that it’s a night that I go out with my family, and you know, party it up and play games and eat lots of good street food. It’s just like a carnival, but there’s something a little magical about it because it’s a full moon. My favorite part of it is the lighting of lanterns. I used to make my own lanterns with my family and go to Redondo Beach and let them go. We would write a wish on the lantern on the inside and then we weren’t allowed to tell anybody what we wished for because it wouldn’t come true if we did. I always asked for money. Never got it. And then after letting the lanterns go we would eat mooncakes!! Always super excited about the mooncakes. But yeah, it was probably my favorite holiday as a child.”

Background Information about the Piece by the informant: Her family always celebrated the Mid Autumn festival as a full day event. The family would spend time together in the day and then go to a local festival at night.

Thoughts about the piece: This holiday sounds like so much fun! I actually went to the Mid Autumn Festival in LA for the first time with my roommate this past year and it was a lot of fun, with live music, games, and delicious food. I’m pretty sure it was not truly authentic because it’s LA and it’s such a huge conglomeration of cultures, but I still was able to experience a lot.  

For another version of this holiday please see https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/holidays/mid-autumn.htm