Mid-Autumn Festivities

Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved the Mid-Autumn (sometimes called Moon) Festival. I loved the idea of families getting together, I loved stories about Chang'e, and I loved the idea of moon cakes.

Last year, my friend Luna invited me to her Mid-Autumn party, since we were all away from our families and had become one of our own. I decided that moon cakes were everything I dreamed that they would be, and I learned a bit about togetherness and Chinese culture.

This year, the trend continues. I get a deeper experience of the festival, but I'm further away from my loved ones than ever.

According to Chinese tradition, this harvest moon is the closest full moon to Earth. Chang'e, the once-mortal moon goddess, is closer to her long-lost husband on that day. It's also the most beautiful moon of the year, and it's a time to celebrate bounty.

Families gather together and eat and drink and talk and relax. They set places for those who have passed on or are far away. And for those who are parted from one another, they go outside to look at the sky and know that they're both looking at the same moon.

We were all away from home and our loved ones, so Shelby, Emily, Mary, and I (our makeshift family) went to dinner together.

We went to the Tang Dynasty All-Day Outdoor Mall because we wanted to do something nicer. And it was an excellent decision.

It was dark out, and the fountains and statues and trees were all lit up. People were everywhere, out celebrating in their small family groups or couples.

We went to a family-style place and poured each other tea and had a lovely meal.

After, we decided to walk around by the Pagoda before getting waffles at Maan Coffee.

Now is a great time to introduce the phenomenon of public dancing.

In China, every night, groups of people gather with stereos and dance together. Usually groups of strangers. Sometimes it works like a class, and sometimes it works like a little party. It might be the single thing I love most about China.

Now, I had yet to run into people dancing because I so rarely get out at night.

But there was a group of women doing traditional dance by the Pagoda.

I watched for maybe a second before joining in to follow along. My friends danced very little, but they got some pictures (which, like all pictures relevant to this post, will be uploaded separately). It was four or five songs before I willingly left the group. It was the perfect ending to the night.

Or so I thought.

As we came back around on our little walk, we encountered a dense crowd of people. We could hear music playing.

Shelby joked that if we got too close, they'd lose me again, but we couldn't resist going to investigate.

It turned out that inside the crowd was another, slightly smaller crowd doing some kind of social dance along the lines of the Cha-Cha slide. After observing for a moment, Emily pushed me in.

It was pretty fun, but when the song ended, everyone started milling around awkwardly. Another song was playing, but no one was dancing.

Well, almost no one.

There was a little group in the middle of the crowd that was still kind of grooving.

Once again, Emily pushed me in.

The people seemed happy to have someone new join the group, and the dancing picked up quickly. Soon, I was really getting into it, throwing in hip hop moves and some traditional Chinese gestures and some Bollywood and more complicated patterns and whatever else came to mind.

We had a little circle, all cheering each other on. Soon, guys were getting pushed into the center of the circle to dance. I didn't try to take the center, and even though I was getting a lot of attention, no one made me.

At one point, I noticed a guy who was kind of outside of the circle, behind me and to my left. I urged him to come join, but he got really really shy and refused until everyone started yelling at him. He came over and danced next to me for a minute before fleeing to the far side of the circle.

Toward the end of the song, one guy came into the middle and made eye contact with me and started showing off his moves. I showed off a little right back. Everyone was cheering and yelling and when the song ended, the others made it clear that he lost.

I had a dance battle with a complete stranger in China.

But that wasn't all.

Those guys getting pushed to the center had all been dancing pretty close to me, facing me. They weren't the center of the circle.

I was.

They were getting pushed into the middle to dance with me.

According to Emily, Mary, and Shelby, all seventy or so people in the crowd were watching me.

Do you see how everyone is facing the same exact point, center left? That was me.

My friends got me out quickly, and as soon as I left, the music stopped and everyone dispersed. Apparently, there were several guys hesitating on the periphery, watching me go.

I honestly cannot believe that it happened. It was like a scene from a movie.

We went and got our waffles with ice cream (they were so good I'm definitely going back), and then we turned in pretty soon after because we had a big hike the following day.

There are some pictures (and there's a little video) from both rounds of dancing. I'll upload them another time, since they were not taken on my camera.