The Moon Festival, also known a the Mid-Autumn Festival, is celebrated by Chinese and other Asian cultures. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Lunar calendar, which falls on October 1st this year, but can fall anywhere between mid-September and early October. On this night there is a full moon. Each year, for the Moon Festival, my family buys moon cakes to eat, but that's the extent of my knowledge and experience with the celebration so I thought I'd do some digging to learn what this day is really all about.

I grew up in a family where my parents called each other's parents "mom" and "dad." Well, "mama" and "baba" in Chinese. For me, that was the norm and what I expected to do should I ever get married. And I like that, because to me, it suggests a closeness and warmth in the relationships. When I got engaged, I asked Chris if it would be weird for me to call his parents "mom" and "dad" or some version of it. It feels weird to me to call them the same thing I call my parents--it's just so personal. But I wanted to build a closeness with them, especially as I felt it must be hard for them to have their son permanently move an ocean and a country away. So, it was helpful we could go British with the terms, since Chris' father is British. But I was surprised by Chris' response. He said, "It's old-fashioned, but I think they'd like it." Old-fashioned? Up until then, I thought everyone did it. Then just a few weeks ago, I learned something interesting about Chinese culture that I didn't know before, and I decided to survey my friends to see how everyone addresses their in-laws.