This year marks the year of the rabbit. That's according to the Chinese Lunar calendar. Anyone born under the sign of the rabbit is born in 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, and in 2011. (Well, it becomes complicated for anyone born in January or early February--since the Gregorian calendar isn't a good match for the Lunar one, these Jan and Feb babies actually fall under the year of the tiger.) The horoscopic descriptions for rabbit-born folks varies from website to website.

Because this is the year of the rabbit, I was really looking forward to this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, which takes place, as always, during the full moon of the eighth lunar month. Celebrated in Chinese and Vietnamese communities, it's a harvest festival holiday of bright lanterns hung from trees or bamboo stakes, floated down rivers, or carried off by winds; of savory-sweet pastries called moon cakes; and of viewers gazing in admiration of the full harvest moon. For those moon-gazers with a little imagination, the form of a rabbit can be seen in the maria, or dark basaltic plains of the moon. In the mythology that accompanies the origins of the Mid-Autumn festival, the moon rabbit is recognized in China, Japan, and Korea. But this Mid-Autumn Festival, taking place on Sept. 12, 2011, I'm going to be in Vietnam. As a matter of fact, I'm boarding the plane in a little less than 9 hours.

And in Vietnam, the moon has no rabbit, and 2011 is the year of the cat.