In Taiwan, there are many holidays and celebrations. In my life here, these holidays have manifested in a series of days filled with fireworks, trying new foods and spending time with neighbors. I particularly enjoyed celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, a popular holiday in Taiwan, by watching a massive firework show in a small fishing village, eating moon cakes gifted to me by my co-workers and by singing karaoke with my Fulbright friends and our Taiwanese neighbors at a neighborhood barbecue!
For this field note, I’d like to share my experiences with the most recent major holiday celebrated in Taiwan: the Mid-Autumn Festival, known here as Zhong Qiu Jie (中秋節). The Mid-Autumn festival is also sometimes known as the Moon Festival, or Moon Cake Festival, due to it being celebrated at the time of the full moon and due to its association with the moon goddess, Chang’e. This holiday is a Chinese holiday, but many variations of it are celebrated in other Asian countries during the same time of year.
