The moon reaches its brightest and fullest state on Monday. For many East and Southeast Asian people, that means the arrival of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

It's a time when red lanterns fill the streets and dinner tables are adorned with beautiful mooncakes to celebrate the harvest moon.

Kwan, whose family started Minneapolis bakery Keefer Court decades ago, said her family used to make thousands of these cakes during this time of year. They were one of the few bakeries still making them by hand despite how laborious it can be, which is why many had offloaded the work to machines.

Kwan said the bakery would be filled with sounds of mooncakes being pounded out of wooden mallets.

“That's what I would hear all throughout the day is my mom in the kitchen, pounding out big mooncakes at all hou

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