Happy Autumn Moon!

Today is the Moon Festival! Take a moment tonight to gaze at the moon, be thankful for your blessings and send the Moon Lady your secret wish. She might grant it!

Wishing you a happy Autumn Moon!

Don't forget to celebrate the Autumn-Moon Festival!

The Moon Festival is on Sunday!  Need some help celebrating? I have a pinterest board with celebration suggestions as well as one with books you can share!

You can even share this poem I just wrote in honor of the day:

Phases of the Moon
by Grace Lin

First
it is a sideways smile
then a tilted silver rainbow
it becomes a white banana
and then a half-cookie
that is swallowed
in a bulging belly
until it is full
That is when I like the moon best
floating and round
a balloon in the sky
just for me


Happy Autumn-Moon!

Preparing for the the Moon Festival!

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.)