Mid-Autumn (Mooncake) Festival

Please don't be afraid. But you may wish to clamber behind your sofa/door/conveniently situated and expendable person.

There are 105 days till Christmas.

That means 104 days till Christmas Eve (I see you sitting there in stunned admiration at my powers of subtraction. Oh no. You're just flipping between this tab and the BBC iPlayer. Never mind), when the whole of western mankind, and one giddy elf, go running round trying to buy presents for their kids, wife (wives? You cheeky), pets and half-forgotten relatives.

Such excitement.

In the meantime, what does one do? Of course, the answer, 'Buy the Christmas presents now, so you don't end up with some crumpled overpriced package to give to Elfina' springs to mind. But that's too mainstream.

So I go mooning.

'EXCUSE ME?' you scream, eyes torn away from BBC4's Crimes of Passion. 'Children read this blog - you are corrupting the minds of the young'.

It's okay. I just mean shopping for mooncakes. Although there is a picture of my moon somewhere. At some point, whoever hacked the iCloud accounts of all those celebrities will undoubtedly do it to me. Because I'm so famous. And everyone wants to see a knitted moon.

Anyway.

To London's Chinatown, where everyone's mooning (okay, okay, I'll stop it).

The Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Moon (sorry) Festival), is celebrated round about September each year. Since it goes according to the Lunar calendar (so it's on the 15th day of the 8th Lunar month), the dates change on the western calendar from year to year.

This means lots of food, lanterns hovering around like UFOs (too much elf-wine, hic) and noise from everyone flocking to have a good look at the stores. It's nowhere near as busy as Chinese New Year, when you literally can't move a metre in any direction, so it's a pretty relaxing day out. It's also good for bringing the elflings to, since you won't risk losing them amongst the crowds.

There are bakeries all along Chinatown, which often sell pastries on the savoury side - very different from what you'd get in an English bakery! For this festival, mooncakes are sold from tables set up outside bakeries and restaurants etc. They have a thin crust and a sweet filling, with an egg yolk in the middle. The tops are often printed with Chinese characters, meaning 'Whassup, dawg?'.

Only joking. I just made that up.

The tops actually often tell you the name of the bakery.

But if you want to inform the mooncake about your day, go ahead. I won't judge you. *shuffles uncomfortably towards nearest exit*

I must also add a teensy warning (at least, teensy compared to your waistline if you eat one of these) - each mooncake is around 1000 calories (for a little 10cm one). So if you buy a box, you'd better share it. Or just buy a box, eat it all, and live on sunlight and water until Christmas.

If you're looking for a souvenir which won't make people ask if you're planning to play Santa this year, go for the little trinkets sold up and down the street. They include lanterns, little charms for your phone, and statuettes. Less tasty, but longer-lasting.

And if you're really cheap, they'd make really unusual Christmas presents too.

See you soon,

Elf Dryadalis