'Tis the time for TURKEY and MOONCAKE!

As many of us are getting our guts ready for the turkey gorge of Thanksgiving Weekend, this is also the weekend of the Chinese Mid Autumn Moon Festival.

Did you know the first Thanksgiving was in Canada? Unlike American Thanksgiving (which commemorates the settling of the New World), Canadians celebrate the start of the earlier harvest: "First Nations would hold fall feasts thanking the great spirit for the bounty of nature." (from Celebrate Canada).

The Mid Autumn Moon Festival is the "most romantic outdoor Chinese cultural celebration which includes a colourful lantern festival, myth telling, music, and complimentary tea and mooncakes.

"The moon is closest to the earth and appears larger and brighter than any other time of the year, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. Then, Chinese families around the world gather to celebrate the moon in a 1000-year-old tradition known as the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. This ancient tradition allows time for the family to unite in a perfect circle like the moon - unbreakable, never-ending, and harmonious."

All of us at schema wish you a warm and belly-filling Thanksgiving, and as much mooncake you can eat this Mid Autumn Festival!

More:
A festival of romance and harvest activities, including a night-time lantern event.
Origins of Mooncake
History and Origin of Canadian Thanksgiving
Fusion gone Luney: Canadian Embassy joins Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations with distinctive mooncakes (2005)