Mid-Autumn Mooncakes!

As part of the inaugural International Languages Festival students have been celebrating the Mooncake Festival today, Tuesday 21^st September, with the Languages Department.

The Mooncake Festival is a celebration of the middle of autumn, the second most important holiday in the Chinese calendar after Chinese New Year, and the time when the moon is believed to be at its fullest and brightest. Established over 3,000 years ago the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates bounty of the harvest and symbols of the moon are plentiful such as Chinese lanterns and mooncakes intended to represent the lighting of the way to good fortune and prosperity.

Students were intrigued to try the mooncakes as a traditional Chinese celebration food. They are made of a pastry case filled with a tasty paste and featuring an egg yolk to symbolise the moon. “They’re like nutty fruity and sour at the same time, they’re really nice. They’re like nothing I’ve tasted before, they’re really different to anything else I’ve ever had.” said Isaac. “I liked the one with the green bean in but I didn’t like the one with the nuts” said Eva. “it’s more like a pie, like a biscuity pie” added Myles (Year 8).

Popping in to sample a mooncake, Head of Teaching and Learning, Jenny Powlesland, commented, “It was lovely to see the students sharing their experiences, discussing the culture and history, and enjoying the mooncakes and tea – a great integration of boarders, day students and students from so many backgrounds.”

Year 8s were pleased to have had the chance to participate. “It’s nice because we learn about the language then actually learn about the background and the culture of it. It’s really good” said Yussef. Eva agreed, ““I really enjoyed it, it’s interesting learning about what other cultures celebrate and everything that goes with it”. “Even though we’re not in China we can still have the same experience here in the classroom. We can learn about the story that happened, and the tradition of food into all the tradition of things you’d be doing in China.” reflected Sam.