An anecdote: During the Mid-Autumn festival, which is held during the full moon cycle of the month of August, I bought a cricket. It came with a little wooden cage and I thought it was something really very truly authentic and unique to China. It chirped with it's wings and was quite an enjoyable novelty. It died tragically one day, perhaps it was too cold. I believe it's the last time I'll buy an insect for a pet. The cricket was purchased on the street. The vendor who sold them also had quite a variety of birds, including: Cockatiels, Parakeets, and numerous others which I lack the knowledge to classify. End of anecdote. China is full of festivals. Most of them are celebrated by China's vast amount of minority people, mostly inhabiting the south-west, and north-west, the places most not influenced by Han culture. The Mid-Autumn festival is a time for families to come together, eat, drink rice wine and be merry. It's a time when people gather and gawk at the full moon. Schools are given a holiday, people take a day or two off work and enjoy themselves. The Mid-Autumn festival is a pretty "festive" time that includes the consumption of "moon cakes": little pastries filled with a chewy filling, sometimes with nuts, sometimes with lotus paste or other such sweet tasting things. Quite tasty although, to some may be an aquired taste.