Tsukimi Festival & We Have a Big Announcement

Japanese people enjoy various seasonal events throughout the year. Through those events, they feel subtle changes in the natural world to live a mindful life. Tsukimi is one of those occasions when they admire the beauty and the power of nature.

Tsukimi comes on August 15th on the lunar calendar. The date changes every year on the solar calendar, and this year it falls on today, October 4th.

Tsukimi literally means “moon-viewing”. It is celebrated on the night of August 15th (jugo-ya, 十五夜) on the lunar calendar, when the moon looks the most beautiful and the brightest. The moon on jugo-ya is not always full, but Japanese people have customarily enjoyed viewing the moon on the day.

The festival is not just to praise the beautiful moon, but it is also the day to thank the nature for the rich harvest. People cook tsukimi-dango, white dumplings, as an offering to the moon and display them in a pyramid-shaped pile on a special tsukimi table.

Tsukimi dango is the most symbolic and traditional food to have on jugo-ya, but there is another food which people associate with tsukimi: it's an egg. With the yellow and round shape, egg yolk is also associated with the term “tsukimi”. McDonald’s sells tsukimi burger, which contains a slice of egg. It is sold only for limited time in fall every year, and lots of people await the period. Tsukimi udon is also topped with a bright, round egg.

Today in Osaka looks like a perfect day to enjoy moon-viewing. And we are excited to make a big announcement on this lovely day.

Finally, ZenPop Bunny has a name.

Do you remember the contest we ran in August? We asked you to give the bunny a name, and we received lots of nice names. And we are finally ready to share the news with you.

The name we chose is…
"Luna" ルナ

Thank you so much, Natalie, for giving her such a cute name. We thought that the name “Luna” is perfect because 1) she looks like the moon, 2) there have been legends told about the rabbit in the moon, 3) she was born in fall, the season for moon-viewing, and 4) full moon can be related to Zen!

Again, thank you so much, everyone, for joining the contest. Every name submitted to us was really nice, and that’s one of the reasons why it took such a long time to pick one of them and tell you about the results. Another reason why we delayed the announcement?

Because October 2017 marks ZenPop’s first birthday!!

Thank you so much, everyone, for supporting us over the past year. To celebrate the anniversary, we are planning some more events to surprise you, so stay tuned for the upcoming announcements! There will be lots of easy ways to get ahold of a Luna plush in the coming months!