Students make mooncakes for traditional festival

Led by Upper School Mandarin Chinese Faculty Nai-I Finney, students in Thayer’s Mandarin Chinese world language program celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival by making traditional Chinese delicacies suitable for the occasion. 

Finney’s students made mooncakes, which are a Chinese pastry typically adorned with Chinese characters and made to be round like the full moon. The round shape is symbolic of people gathering with their families at a round table. In Chinese, the character "round" (圓) is also in the word "reunite" (團圓). Therefore, a lot of the mooncakes are made to be round.

Instead of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival by sharing the store-bought mooncakes, this year, Mrs. Finney used a no-bake recipe (冰皮月餅) that originated from Hong Kong about three decades ago. She made the skin and filling the night prior and in class, students learned how the mold works and enjoyed making the pastry with their classmates.

In China, the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is one of four major traditional holidays and is second only to the Lunar New Year in importance. The holiday, which is viewed as a time of family unity, is also celebrated in several countries of East Asia and Southeast Asia including Japan and Vietnam. 

An event based upon the lunar calendar, this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival fell on Sept. 17.