Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Shanna Wu
ESL 100
February 19, 2017
Different Traditional Culture
My favorite festival is Mid-Autumn festival which I love to celebrate with my family and friends. In China, the Mid-Autumn festival is very lively and joyful. People usually celebrate with their relatives and close friends at night. People also think about people they miss. However, in Chicago, this tradition is not very popular despite the large Chinese community. Thus, people barely celebrate and the meaning of this beautiful tradition has been forgotten. Also, Chinese peoples lives are busy in Chicago, and the Mid-Autumn festival is a traditional festival people least stay with friends. The parts I miss in Chicago are eating traditional food, playing interesting activities, and celebrating with a special atmosphere.

 There are different kinds of the traditional food that I used to eat on the Mid-Autumn festival. In China, people eat traditional food with family and friends. Friends and family often celebrate on their balcony of their home. They watch the full moon while they are enjoying eating mooncakes. For example, my family and I used to have seafood, grapes, bananas, apples, chestnuts, pumpkin pie, and different kinds of mooncake. In fact, during the Mid-Autumn festival, my mom usually makes me a special combination of mooncake. I was so surprised that I can taste a delicious mooncake. It is made with mango, strawberry, and coconut. In Chicago, Chinese people don’t eat the traditional food that Chinese people eat on this holidays. Many Chinese immigrants eat simple food with friends and family during the festival. People also eat mooncake, but it tastes very different than China. People eat pumpkin pie and drink Chinese tea. However, in Chicago, Chinese people are not very happy because they do not have those delicious foods like in China. For example, people eat mooncake, apples, oranges. Doing interesting activities is childrens favorite part.

In addition, Mid-Autumn festival is a special holiday, so children like to do interesting activities. For example, children love to hang lanterns and burn fireworks. In addition, Hanging lanterns are the interesting part of children’s favorite activities. They usually carry different colors and styles of the lanterns around the street. For example, the design of the lanterns has fish, rabbits, butterflies, stars, letters and various patterns. The street in my hometown, Guangdong is very splendid and sparkly. When people sit together watching fireworks with their neighbors, they can interact with others. However, living in Chicago, people don’t celebrate with their friends as we did in China. Also, the street has just no one hanging lanterns, and people only can watching moonlight and eat moon cake. On a special day, children were very excited to play with these activities. 

Moreover, the atmosphere of the Mid-Autumn festival is so special. In China, people love with their family and communicate with each other. Also, they share transitional food with their close friends. Generally, they not only talk about what they eat during the Mid-Autumn festival and what they play with others but also enjoy tasting moon cake and sharing interesting things with everyone. For example, people usually sit together outside in the yard with their friends. but in Chicago, most people are busy. They have to go to work, so they don’t have enough time to celebrate with friends. Many Chinese immigrants feel lost in Chicago the feeling of warm atmosphere in the traditional festival from China. I don’t have many friends to spend time with me to share the festival. The mid-autumn festival atmosphere is very attractive.
To conclude, the Mid-Autumn is so joyful and satisfying, but I miss watching the children hang lanterns and burn the fireworks on the street. On the Mid-Autumn festival, around the colorful firework light up the street for children, it allows children into the beautiful wonderland. The atmosphere is full, people hope everyone has a complete Mid-Autumn festival.

3 comments:

  1. Shanna, I have to celebrate with my family during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and I would like to eat at least 5 moon cakes :)

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    1. that's cool! it similar with me, I also celebrate with my family and eat traditional foods and mooncakes.

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