Autumn Moon Festival Street Fair

Description

Once again, the streets of historic Chinatown will be transformed into a lively, colorful pedestrian bazaar for the AT&T Autumn Moon Festival on September 22-23, 2012 presented by the San Francisco Chinatown Merchants Association. For two days, Saturday and Sunday, San Francisco Chinatown on historic Grant Avenue will be filled with attractive arts and crafts booths, cultural exhibits, children's activities, food, corporate sponsors and non-stop entertainment. The festivities open with a grand parade on Saturday at 11 a.m. on California and Grant led by Mayor Ed Lee, civic officials, beauty queens, cultural performers and lion dancers. The Moon Festival attracts throngs of local residents and tourists from all over the San Francisco Bay Area. The event was started in 1991 by a group of merchants in an effort to revitalize Chinatown businesses. Since then, the Festival has continued on a path of continued growth and prominence.

In honor of the memory of May Louie, the Festival's founder, there will be a special lantern parade on Saturday evening at
5 p.m. One thousand glow sticks and colored lanterns will pass out to children 12 and under. Lion dancers will perform for the special occasion. The children with glow sticks and lanterns in hand will be encouraged to march alongside the lion dancers down Grant Avenue.

The famous Dragon appears on Sunday at 5 p.m. as the grand finale of the event.

For visitors unfamiliar with the Asian tradition of the Moon Festival, this event provides a unique opportunity to participate in cultural festivities unlike any other in the Western world. Chinese Opera performers commingle with martial artists, and contemporary pop groups perform alongside traditional dancers. All this variety gives attendees insight into the cultural diversity of this unique San Francisco neighborhood.

Bargains Galore
For this weekend, this Chinatown festival will be a shopper's bargain paradise. Thousands of Asian arts and crafts, housewares, plants, jewelry, and beauty products will be for sale at special prices in well-stocked booths covering several city blocks. Other items available include handbags, clothing, photographs, unique Asian gifts, paintings, lanterns, and food products. Several vendors will be on hand to sell a large assortment of the traditional mooncakes. Unique ethnic foods will be offered by local food trucks.

1000 year- old Asian tradition
Moon Festival celebrations, though still relatively new to the U.S., have been held throughout Asia for well over 1,000 years. This holiday is a time to reflect upon the bounty of the summer harvest, the fullness of the moon, and the myth of the immortal moon Goddess, Chang O, who lives in the moon. The Moon Festival is often compared to a sort of "Chinese Thanksgiving" because of its spirit of gratitude and its inclusion of abundant food - including the popular moon cake. Moon cakes are flaky, round, semi-sweet pastries often filled with bean or lotus-seed paste and topped with a duck egg, echoing the shape of the full moon. Many millions of moon cakes are gifted around the time of the Moon Festival.

More Info

Link

http://www.moonfestival.org/

Call

415.982.6306

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