East River Moon Festival takes Seaport by storm

By amNY Posted on October 3, 2012

Milo-top-left — [/media-credit] Lion dances to the moon

In honor of East Asia’s Mid-Autumn Harvest Festival, the first annual East River Moon Festival brought a touch of Asia to the New Amsterdam Market, on South Street between Beekman Place and Peck Slip. The festival, which took place on Sun., Sept. 30 — the full moon day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar — featured a lion dance performance (left), Asian-inspired foods prepared by New Amsterdam Market vendors and kids’ red paper lantern-making by the Museum of Chinese in America. Hundreds of people gathered at dusk for a lantern-lighting ceremony (right and bottom) and proceeded to stroll along the East River Promenade under a beautiful full moon with their free lanterns.

[media-credit name=”Downtown Express photos by Milo Hess ” align=”aligncenter” width=”600″]