Somehow, another year has passed and it's the festival of the Autumn Moon, celebrating the one day of the year when Cheng-Er (or Chang-O, or Chang-Ngo) can come down from her prison on the moon. It's also the day before the festival of Sukkot, the Feast of Booths.

I was thinking about this lucky coincidence while reading this story about two rabbis from Pittsburgh who met their daughter the day before Rosh Hashanah.Actually, the mom met the daughter. Because both of them are rabbis, they couldn't leave the congregation in the middle of the High Holy Days - there wasn't anyone to fill in. (And just a reminder, but some girls adopted from China have bat mitvahs and everything.)

So, the Autumn Moon celebrates the luminosity of the full moon. As early as 150-some BC, the Emperor decreed that this would be a good evening to watch the moon, and as time went by, it became an outdoor celebration, with offerings made by women and lots of tea and cakes and chrysanthemums for everyone.

I've never actually celebrated Sukkot - the closest I've come was marveling at the booth-on-wheels towed behind the Winnebago owned by the Lubavitchers down the street when I lived in South Beach. But I know it's also an outdoor festival, and I've got a feeling tea and cakes would go down a treat after the waving of the fruit and branches.

I don't think we're actually getting moon cakes this year. I'm the only one who winds up eating them. Maybe we'll make some challah and strudel instead.

Hopefully, the clouds will have cleared enough by tonight to take out the telescope and look up at the moon with the children. And even if it doesn't, I'm sure we'll be telling one version or another of the Chang-Er story, with her husband Hou Yi, the ill-fated sons of the Jade Emperor and the magic elixir that sent her off this world and onto that silver satellite.

And here, for those into stargazing, is the crater named for the lady in the moon seen up close. For those *not* into stargazing, trust me - it's far more captivating in person.

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