Last night was Mid-Autumn Festival and the start of the full moon.

This East Asian holiday is usually celebrated with a family dinner and a lantern walk to see the moon. We just had a regular dinner together and then slipped out for a walk around our condo complex as soon as it got dark.

We had made many lanterns over the last few weeks to decorate our house, but we used store bought designs for our walk. We also put on glow-in-the-dark bracelets and decorated them with glowing beads too.

I learnt last year that you need to set the wax candle well in the lantern while it's still flat before pulling it up into it's long lantern shape. Our package of paper lanterns came with one flashing LED light so I taped that well into the bottom of MsI's lantern and used the wax candles for the rest of us. I used a BBQ lighter to actually light our lanterns and brought extra of everything in case our candles went out or anyone lit their lantern on fire. Last year we did see a few paper lanterns go up in flames; they weren't ours.

Last year our condo complex hosted a big buffet dinner for residents, provided entertainment, and then handed out paper lanterns to all of the children for a lantern walk. There was none of that this year due to COVID, but we did see children in small groups out like us with their lanterns. One of the groups we passed even had 3 of the girls' closest friends. We were excited to spot them in the dark and exclaim over their lanterns. We snapped a picture as we met and passed by in opposite directions.

We made the right call giving MsI the LED light. She alternated between carrying her lantern carefully, dragging it along the ground, swinging it in full circles around her, and occasionally bumping it into the bushes and the rest of us.  

Because we headed out so early, it was about 7:30, the moon was still very low in the sky. We actually pulled out the compass on our phones to determine where we should be looking for it. It was hidden behind the buildings, but once we knew where to look and which direction to walk, we found it easily. The moon was very full and bright.