1. Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday, October 5. The next day, Friday, October 6 is the mid-autumn festival, the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar. In Chinese tradition, this is the time to celebrate by sitting outdoors, eating mooncakes and basking in the bright moon light. I have not been home to Hong Kong during mid-autumn in more than 39 years and so this is the first time I am spending mid-autumn festival in Hong Kong.


This is a photo I took of the moon outside of the Park Lane Hotel in Causeway Bay looking up from the front of the hotel. Supposedly this year, Hong Kong is experiencing the closest distance to the moon ever. But obviously it is still quite far!








For the first time ever, the Hong Kong government sponsored a free lantern festival in Victoria Park for all to enjoy. Since we are very close to the park, we walked there late at night on mid-autumn festival day. The park was crowed with people and there is an elaborate lantern display of Tang Dynasty poets in paper lanterns. The photo shows dragons made of paper lanterns.