Cake time!

Zhu Siming shangri kuai le!  Yesterday was Simon's birthday and his Chinese teacher made him this super cool chocolate brownie cake.

The text used to say "zhu Siming shangri kuaile (祝思明生日快乐!)" or "To Simon Happy Birthday." The Chinese lesson didn't last long though, because the "zhu" was quickly gone. :-)

Today at work I got my own cake: a golden box of mooncakes to celebrate the upcoming mooncake (or mid-Autumn) festival.

The exact date of the mooncake festival is based on China's lunar calendar, so the date is not the same every year. This year, by chance, it's just one day before China's National Day on October 1st, when the country celebrates the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. To celebrate this joyful event, kids have a whole week off from school and offices also close for a couple of days.  Woohoo: this year in China, you can have your mooncake and eat it too!

The wrapping says it all: a pretty bag for my cookies.
 

Out comes a golden box.
 

 

And in it are delicious (?)  mooncakes. These actually don't look like the traditional mooncakes you often see, but I am sure it's the real deal :-)



My two mooncakes with "their" birthday gifts.


In het Nederlands: Gisteren was Simon's negende verjaardag. Hij kreeg een leuke chocoladecake met gestippelde felicitaties van zijn Chinese juf. Zelf kreeg ik vandaag ook vast cakejes: twaalf mooncakes (maankoekjes) om het aanstaande maanfeest (ook wel mid-herfst feest genoemd) te vieren. Dat komt mooi uit, want volgende week hebben we ook nog de hele week vrij om China's nationale feestdag te vieren.