Two Festivals

There are two national festivals in September. The first is Teacher's Day (September 10), begun in 1984 in response to the violent anti-intellectualism of the Cultural Revolution. When I entered the classroom on Wednesday, my students surprised me with a very thoughtful gift: a beautiful piece of red knotwork to bring Sue and me luck. The "class monitor" gave a short speech thanking me for my energy and diligence in teaching him and his classmates. After the brief formalities, a few pictures of these energetic future English teachers were definitely in order: http://picasaweb.google.com/SteveDC505/TeacherSDay#

The second holiday is the Zhong Qiutian -- the Mid-Autumn Festival -- that occurs on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month (September 14) when the full moon is thought to be at its brightest and most beautiful. The tradition dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), when Chinese emperors offered sacrifices to the Moon God. Today, the festival is celebrated with family reunions (or groups of classmates going to a restaurant or a karaoke bar). Family and friends gaze at the full moon, drink tea or wine, and eat delicious round "moon cakes" filled with candy, fruit, nuts, eggs, or meat. As "foreign experts," the city government of Dalian treated us to a free concert of traditional Chinese music. The program included symphonic arrangements of well-known folk songs, arias from the Beijing opera, virtuoso soloists on tradtional instruments like the erhu and flute, and even an arrangement of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" scored for a Chinese instruments: http://picasaweb.google.com/SteveDC505/MoonFestival#