Yay the Moon! It was a little cloudy, so the moonrise was obscured from view, but we had a fantastic time this year. Remembering how cold it is down by the river after sunset, we wisely rugged up before heading out to meet our friends for a picnic on the hill while we watched the floats + fireworks. . . + they really outdid themselves this year with the lantern parade! Seems a lot of corporate sponsors jumped on the wagon, as well as even more schools (who were the main participants last year). There was some real craftsmanship on display this year, we’re already looking forward to next year! Mister O has been asking each day if it’s Moon Festival yet :p

As part of our Moon Festival activities, Aurelia + I went to see a performance of the Guangzhou Acrobatic Troupe of China doing “Journey to the West” (being the fictionalized account of a monk’s journey from China to India around ~600AD to retrieve Buddhist scriptures). It was awesome! They did a great job of visually telling the story of Monkey’s battles with Heaven + some of the demons the group face on their journey. As for the acrobatics, man! It is amazing what the human body can do. There were some wacky flips in the beginning that involved landing mid-air on a pole by quickly grasping legs around said pole – you can believe there were some cringes in the audience for that feat! Crazy trampoline-powered flips easily won the day, but it was all around spectacular; the costuming was absolutely gorgeous, + the story well told (they even had marionettes of the main characters goofing around during set changes). At one point Pigsy handed some bags of chips out to the audience, just plain silly business. These guys know how to put on an entertaining show!