Mooncakes and Paper Lanterns

Every year, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the moon is full and round, and Lin's whole family comes together for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This year, Lin had decided to make her own lantern instead of buying one. She wanted a rabbit, with long ears and a round white body.

She worked on it for three evenings. She bent thin bamboo sticks into a frame, glued on white paper, and painted two pink ears. Her little cousin Wei watched every step. "Is it finished yet?" he asked about forty times.

On the night of the festival, the family met at Grandma's apartment. The table was covered in food: a big green pomelo, plates of sweet taro, and a box of mooncakes, each one stamped on top with a flower pattern.

Grandma cut the mooncakes into quarters so everyone could try every kind. Lin's favorite was lotus seed paste. Inside some of them was a salted egg yolk, round and golden. "Like a little moon inside the cake," said Wei.

After dinner, they all went up to the rooftop garden to look at the moon. Lin carefully put the little battery light inside her rabbit and switched it on.

Nothing happened.

She shook it gently. She switched it off and on. The rabbit stayed dark. All around them, other families' lanterns glowed red and gold and blue. Lin felt her eyes go hot.

"Three evenings," she whispered. "And it doesn't even work."

Grandma sat down next to her on the bench. "Shall I tell you a story while we think?" she said. Lin nodded.

"There is an old tale," said Grandma, "that a woman named Chang'e lives on the moon, and she has a jade rabbit for company. If you look closely at the full moon, people say you can see the rabbit's shape."

Lin looked up. The dark patches on the moon did look a little like a rabbit with long ears. "My rabbit is supposed to be glowing, like that one," she said.

"Then let's be detectives," said Grandma. "What does a light need to shine?"

Lin thought. "Electricity. From the battery." She opened the little light. One of the two batteries was in upside down. She must have done it in the rush. She turned it the right way round, closed the lid, and switched it on.

The rabbit lit up, white and pink, its ears glowing.

Wei gasped. "It looks like the moon rabbit came down!"

Lin held her lantern high. Grandpa took a photo of all of them under the round, bright moon. Uncle Jun peeled the pomelo and made Wei a hat out of the thick peel, which made everyone laugh.

Later, as they walked home with their lanterns swinging, Lin asked, "Why do we always come together on this night?"

"Because the full moon is round," said Mom, "and a round moon makes people think of a whole family, with nobody missing."

Lin looked at her glowing rabbit, then at the moon, then at everyone around her. Nobody was missing.

⭐ The End ⭐