The heat of summer is going away, nice and cool fall has come. The moon begins to shine brilliantly in the cool dry night sky. A legend tells us, before man landed on the moon, that rabbits lived on the face of the moon and pounded out rice cake. In my childhood, whenever I watched the moon, the rabbits used to perform the pounding for me. It was strange that the craters and the seas of the moon actually turned to be the shape of rabbits.

The most beautiful moon of the year, the renowned moon of fall, comes on 15th of August in the lunar calendar. We celebrate the moon at night by offering "moon viewing dumpling," taro, and "the seven fall flowers" namely Bush clover, Japanese pampas grass, Chinese bellflower, Fringed pink, Ominaeshi, Kuzu, and Fujibakama.The moon viewing is a traditional event handed down since the Heian era about 1,200 years ago.

May his soul rest in peace !