Tara FinleyToday marks the most celebrated day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, when the waning full moon is bright in the sky, in recognition of the beginning of the harvest season.
Often celebrated with lanterns and mooncakes, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated across the world in East and Southeast Asian communities. Both Los Angeles and Irvine have celebrations happening throughout the cities, in recognition of this culturally significant occasion.
Always held on the 15th of the 8th lunar month in the Chinese calendar (around the time of the autumn equinox), the festival is held on multiple days, culminating in a final night of gathering, thanksgiving, prayer, community and feast. Moon worship is an important aspect of the celebration (the celebration is also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival), as its origins trace back to Chang’e 嫦娥, the Chinese goddess of the Moon.
In Los Angeles, Chinatown Los Angeles will be celebrating all day. Several local businesses on Broadway are selling their authentic mooncakes, including Phoenix Bakery at 969 N Broadway and Wonder Bakery at 943 N Broadway.
Chinatown (Catalina Johnson on Unsplash)
In Irvine, the city of Irvine is hosting its first Mid-Autumn Festival (in conjunction with the city’s 50th anniversary) at the Great Park Balloon Lawn tonight from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The event is free and family-friendly, and will include a feast of tea and mooncakes, food trucks, entertainment and more.
You can also celebrate at home, as several artisan brands recognize the holiday. Celebrity-backed and queer-owned cannabis company Cann has partnered with Sundae School, a Korean-American founded fashion and cannabis brand on a mission to uplift the AAPI community, to create a limited-edition Yuzu Elderflower flavor. To keep in line with the origins of Yuzu and Elderflower (East & West Asian, respectively), both brands are embracing the elements of this celebration with the launch of this collaboration.
“Cann and Sundae School are both queer-owned brands who share the same values, so it’s a match made in gay heaven,” explains Luke Anderson of Cann, of the collaboration. “But really it boils down to Sundae School being the brand we look up to – their continuously evolving aesthetic and cool, irreverent voice inspire us to push boundaries on products and content.”
“Sundae School started as a creative outlet for us while we were stuck in our 9-5s,” said Jennifer Tran of Sundae School. “We would spend our evenings getting high and talking about designs. Sundae School started its fashion line in New York and a year ago our dreams came true when we were able to bring our cannabis line to California. At our core, we are just weird art kids having the time of our lives and creating with our friends.”
“Cann has always used their platform for marginalized voices and between that commitment and us purely being besties that like to look cute and dance …. It felt like a no-brainer [to connect],” she agrees.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are both core aspects of both companies.
“If you’re building a cannabis brand and DEI isn’t in its DNA, that’s a problem,” Anderson tells us. “This industry has been built on Black and Brown operators, and yet BIPOC-owned brands are few and far between on retail shelves. If this is ever going to change, white-owned brands especially need to be held accountable for donating money to the causes that make space for Black and Brown entrepreneurship, amplifying these organization’s messages, and hiring BIPOC people at every level.”
Sour yuzu with elderflower (Courtesy CANN)
Including and uplifting the AAPI community is central to their missions.
“By just existing we feel like we are uplifting the AAPI community [as members themselves],” shares Tran. “We want to show that being Asian is not a monolith. That we can all exist and also thrive.”
“Baked into our sales model is our dedication to long-term social change. When you check out our website you are prompted with four organizations we care about – everything from protecting Black trans lives to feeding the elderly. We’ve made it easy and foolproof to donate,” she continues. How can we all help? “Do your research and educate yourself. Follow brands like us and CANN who will continue to highlight resources.”
Sundae School has collaborated with Cann to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and highlight a culturally significant fruit and flavor, making festivities accessible to those at home.
“We formulated a Yuzu Elderflower flavor early on in Cann’s history, and it actually placed 1st overall for taste in our largest focus group,” he continues. “But since Yuzu has obvious East Asian roots, we had been withholding it and waiting for a moment where it could really feel authentic and connected to the AAPI community. We saw Sundae School killing it with their Sour Yuzu gummies and asked if they’d be willing to collaborate with us and were thrilled they said yes. We haven’t always been able to successfully pay homage and tell detailed stories related to international ingredient heritage, but it is always a brand’s duty to.”
“The Mid-Autumn Festival is a really important holiday in the Asian community and a personal favorite of ours,” says Tran. “The Mid-Autumn Festival is usually celebrated with family; we chose to celebrate with our chosen family and besties! We collaborated with our friends at Cann to add a funky twist to our Sour Yuzu, with elderflowers. We hope you enjoy this collaboration as much as we enjoyed working on it.”
The collaboration bore a limited-edition Yuzu Elderflower flavor that offers a flagrantly sharp yin with a delicate floral yang, at the same dosage as regular Cann (2mg THC + 4mg CBD).
“The flavor profile offers exotic yuzu citrus that overlays the grounded orange juice to create the perfect blend of fruit flavor, while the elderflower fragrance elevates the drink with an herbal flowery aromatic that tips this beverage into a fine drinking experience that warrants a reserve label. It is the premium Cann drink for the adventurous palate,” describes Cann.
Head down to our local bakeries to grab some delicious mooncakes, and then crack open a cold one to enjoy the beginning of what is sure to be a bountiful season.
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