As I'm just about to head off to bed tonight, I hear the thunder. The rolling thunder. Its somehow comforting. I don't think I have ever said this before about the thunder. It usually seems so startling and I wait in fear of the next big crack. Sometimes, its really scary.

In China, the thunder and lighting is honestly the most powerful I have ever experienced. The rain falls so hard that even your insides feel wet, and the sky lights up so bright that your eyes feel like they have just been opened for the first time! Traffic goes slower, people run to find shelter, others press on through the storm.

But, then at times, the thunder just comes in the distance. A quiet rumble. Reminding me that it is there. It looms. Sometimes, it reminds me that its not so scary after all and that I don't have to fear it.

This got me thinking that sometimes the things that a foreigner experiences in China, can make you want to hide or turn the other way or run or maybe cover your eyes. Maybe this is like any new experience we have at any point in our lives. Then there are times where this place just quietly reminds you that its not an experience meant to be feared, but one that just causes reflection.

Its quiet now. No thunder. I wish it would come back. I just want to think a while longer.

mooncake

Today, I came to work and sitting on my desk was a peculiar looking treat - mooncake! Over the next few weeks, China will be celebrating what is known as Mid Autumn festival. Its a time when families get together and enjoy each others company. Families will travel from other cities to be together. Its kind of like our thanksgiving.

Here is some information I found out about the Mid Autumn Festival that I found to be interesting:

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is a popular East Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival.
The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as:
Eating moon cakes outside under the moon
Putting pomelo rinds on one's head
Carrying brightly lit lanterns
Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e
Planting Mid-Autumn trees
Collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members
Lighting lanterns on towers
Fire Dragon Dances