The Corner

Appreciating The Moon

The Derbs (including Boris) just came back from our annual moonlight walk.

This is a Chinese thing: on the fifteenth of the eighth lunar month you

celbrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. This involves eating some special foods

(notably moon-cake) and going out to “appreciate the moon” (_shang yue_) and

recite appropriate poems. The proper day was really yesterday, but the sky

was cloudy last night, so we put it off till tonight. The moon was

exceptionally fine, full and bright in a clear sky. There are no street

lights out here in the sticks, so we strolled through the argentine

moonlight, followed by our moon shadows. Lovely.

John Derbyshire — Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.
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