2.8.2009: Chinese Rice Balls

It was a beautiful full moon and my Chinese friends from school organized a party to celebrate the Chinese Lantern Festival. It is so fun to have friends from such different cultures who want to share their food and music and stories. The legend of this festival says that there used to be magical creatures in the sky and that humans shot one of the birds down. The emperor god was angry and promised to wipe the humans out in two years. His princess came to earth to warn them so they gathered an army, but realized they could never defeat the angel warriors, so they got crafty and made thousands of lanterns to make it look like the earth was on fire to the gods in heaven. The emperor god was fooled and never sent his soldiers to earth. If I ever get to China, I would love to go during the first full moon of the new year... it sounds like such a beautiful time! And gluten-free rice balls! What could be better?