Mid autumn festival

On the first night after my arrival, on Friday night, the Chinese celebrated the so callled mid autumn festival (zhong qiu jie), also known as the moon festival, or the moon cake festival, because it takes place on the day that the moon is at its fullest, and because of the traditional food that is eaten: moon cakes. The history of this celebration goes back around 3.000 years. Originally, it was a festival to celebrate the abundance of the summer harvest. Nowadays it is mostly a holiday that is used to celebrate and spend time with the family. The week around the festival is one of the three "golden" weeks of holiday for the Chinese. This means of course also a week during which massive crowds are almost unavoidable on popular spots.

After dinner on Friday night I had a walk in the area around the Fuzhou West Lake. The buildings around the lake were beautifully lit, there was a new fountain in the lake, dancing on an orchestra of lights, and there were fireworks on several spots. The atmosphere was cheerful and relaxing, despite the crowds (the Dutch word would be "gezellig").

What impressed me most, though, was what was going on on a square besides the lake. I saw that quite a few people had gathered there, so I decided to see what was going on. I noticed some loudspeaker boxes, but did not pay much attention to it. After all, it was a festival, right? I sat down somewhere in the middle of the square, watching the people: kids, youngsters, middle-agers, seniors, they were all there. Until suddenly, music started playing .... and all these people (well, most of them) started dancing (pas de deux), in the open air. I sat there for a long time, enjoying the evening of the moon festival.

It felt good to be in Fuzhou.