Celebrating Moon Festival with a Taiwanese Family
I just got back from spending the last 4 days celebrating Moon Festival or Mid Autumn Festival in the southern part of Taiwan. Jean (Angie’s friend), invited Angie and I to celebrate the weekend with her family in Tainan and Kaohsiung, which is where Jean grew up. Southern Taiwan is different from northern Taiwan in that it is more suburban and there’s a lot more farmland. People in southern Taiwan also speak a lot more Taiwanese (which is Taiwan’s native language) so when I was around Jean’s family or just walking around in the streets, I heard people speaking it. Since I don’t understand a word of Taiwanese (it’s really different from Mandarin) I had a hard time bargaining when I was shopping and I didn’t understand what the sales people were saying. I would just pretend like I understood and spoke to them back in Mandarin so they wouldn’t suspect I was a foreigner.
Angie and I hopped on the bus on Friday at noon and arrived at Kaohsiung around 7PM. There was a lot of traffic since everyone was traveling during the long weekend. Jean and her brother then drove us up to Tainan where her grandma and the rest of her relatives live. Although we spent the night at her grandma’s house, we had the barbeque at Jean’s uncle’s house. The house was completely empty and only had concrete walls since it was in the process of being built from the ground up. We had the barbeque inside the house of concrete walls which was better than having it on the sidewalk like most other Taiwanese families had theirs. While on the bus ride to Kaohsiung, we saw a lot of families having their barbeques in their garages or out on the sidewalks. They would squat or sit on small chairs around the grill while eating. It’s so different from the barbeques I’m used to in America with huge barbeque grills in huge backyards with comfortable lawn chairs.
While the adults were inside eating and chatting, the children were outside playing with fireworks. Fireworks became illegal recently in Taiwan, but for some reason, they were legalized again this year so we heard fireworks all weekend long. I played with fireworks for the first time and had a lot of fun with the kids. We drove back to Kaohsiung the next day and spent the rest of the weekend eating and shopping. I also watched TV for the first time since I’ve been to Taiwan and I’m now hooked on Taiwan’s MTV.
Everything in Kaohsiung is cheaper than in Taipei. Just like New York City or San Francisco for example, living standards in big cities are always higher so I bought a lot of clothes at Kaohsiung! That alone made my weekend! It was also nice to spend Moon Festival traditionally with a Taiwanese family. It made me really homesick. People in Taiwanese families have really close relationships with one another and it’s very important for them to get together during holidays. It wouldn’t surprise me if four generations in one family live under the same roof.
Well now I’m back in my dorm and I have a test and a quiz tomorrow so I have to get studying! Take care!
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