Yesterday we had the amazing opportunity to attend Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. In China it is a festival of thanksgiving for the harvest, with sweet moon cakes, stories of the moon goddess, and dances with loud music to scare evil spirits away. It certainly brought our studies to life to see the festival.
e and her friend s, who is also reading Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, ran from table to table. The kind ladies of the Sumi-e Society of America were there to explain the kinds of brushes, how lightly the strokes are made, why the ink is watery. The girls recognized the dish that would have been the inkstone in their story. They tried their hand at Sumi-e with amazing results.
Of course an origami master was present. He had a table full of intricately folded leaves, squirrels, flowers, trees, and the teensiest owl. He showed us how to make these lovely flowers.
E wasn't about to be left out from the festival; he knows he gets to study Ancient China in January and is quite excited about it. He asked question after question about penzai. Next spring we will have to find him a small tree to work with!
No comments:
Post a Comment