Photos: Moon Festival of Silicon Valley

A lion dance, fashion show and a solo performance from one of Beijing's finest dancers marked the two-day Moon Festival of Silicon Valley this year.

A joint effort by the Chinese Performing Artists of America (CPAA) and the Chinese American Chamber of Commerce produced this year's local Moon Festival, which originated in Cupertino but moved to the Orchard Farms Shopping Center in San Jose a few years ago.

Officials from both the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce and the San Jose City Council were present at the festival, along with state Assemblyman Paul Fong (D-Mountain View).

The Moon Festival, or Mid-Autumn Festival, celebrates the eighth full moon of the lunar year. This year the eighth full moon will be on Monday.

Although the Moon Festival of Silicon Valley has dwindled in size since it moved from Memorial Park, the result has been a more intimate setting with local government officials taking part in cutting moon cake and interacting with constituents.

"It's fine as long as it's happening," said Assemblyman Fong, who also said he practices Chinese culture at home. "People have been celebrating this [holiday] for thousands of years."

Several legends surround the moon festival, which dates back thousands of years. One of the most famous tells of a beautiful woman named Chang'e married to a king who saved the world by shooting nine extra suns that happened to rise one day. As a reward, he was given an immortality pill, but Chang'e ended up eating the pill herself, and then tried to commit suicide to escape her husband's wrath. Instead of dying as she jumped out a window, she floated to the moon.

Today, the festival is more about spending time with family than worshipping the moon, and, of course, eating .

On Saturday, special dance performances commemorated the holiday. Allie Dong, who studied at the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy, arrived from China two days ago and is now a teacher at the CPAA center. Sharifa Ma has been dancing for 12 years and performed a minority folk dance that portrayed a love story.

People from a diversity of backgrounds attended and sponsored the event, including two women from the Iranian Christian Church, who did free face painting, and two Muslim women, who helped educate attendees about Muslim culture worldwide.

Ma, who is Taiwanese, and Aida Hamshari, from Yemen, have been coming to the Moon Festival since 2001—soon after 9/11. At that first festival, Ma said they had crowds of curious people going to their booth with questions. The festival is an opportunity to raise awareness about Islam and how people live in Muslim countries, said Ma.

"Some people will come and say thank you for being here, because sometimes they don't have the faintest idea what Islam is," Hamshari added.

The two later put on a fashion show, highlighting some of the traditional dresses worn in Muslim countries, from Yemen to Saudi Arabia.

"The Chamber of Commerce really does a great job making it a multicultural festival," said San Jose City Councilman Ash Kalra. "I think it's a very diverse group of people who celebrate, and I enjoy it."