Groovy Island Girl: Mid Autumn Festival

Today’s mini mid autumn festival celebration at school concluded the lesson we had the past week at school. The kids had a fun time with their lanterns and moon cakes. I think the highlight of the day for them was when the lights went out and they saw their lanterns light up. The lanterns came in all sorts of shapes and sizes and all kinds of paper. The kids were comparing lanterns and getting all excited. If I could capture their smiling faces for everyone to see I would – it’s just so adorable. They walked around carefully I might add seeing that these were candle lit lanterns so teachers had to be extra observant today. After the lantern fun, they kids had a taste of the moon cake.

Personally I never really liked moon cake until recently when I had a taste of it and I was hooked. I like the more modern version of the moon cake in this case the green cake moon cake. I was just thinking when I was watching the kids with their lanterns how when I was little I would celebrate the mid autumn festival with my Chinese neighbors. My mom would go all out and dress me in a Chinese costume so I would fit in lol she’s just so sweet that way. There I would be the only non Chinese dressed for the occasion with my little paper lantern. We would walk down the street with our lantern and just be kids. i probably have a picture of it somewhere seeing my late dad enjoyed taking pictures – I think ill look it up sometime. Watching the kids just brought back fond memories. During the mid autumn festival I remembered visiting china town and seeing all the huge lanterns they had hanging around. It was really beautiful. There use to be so much time to do those things before – experience another culture right in your country these days it seems time is so scarce .. hmmmmm..

For the curious lot here is a write about the mid autum festival. Its short brief to the point and interesting with it I have included some pictures of the things I mentioned here. Hope everyone enjoys them and have an idea of just some of the many festivals we have here in Singapore.

MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL

The Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, is celebrated with family gatherings, prayers, and a lantern parade by children. Offerings of mooncakes, fried chicken, roasted pork, pomelos, water melon seeds and Chinese tea are made to deities and ancestors, while prayers are offered with joss-sticks, red candles and joss paper burnt. One of the legends behind the Mid-Autumn Festival

is about Chang Er, a beautiful woman who transformed into a fairy and floated to the moon after taking an immortality pill meant for her husband, Hou Yi, a heroic archer.

Hou Yi, who was grief stricken, touched the hearts of the heavenly gods, who in turned allowed the couple to reunite on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar or Mid-Autumn. Hou Yi then ascended to the sun and built his palace there. Today it is still believed that if you look hard enough at the moon on Mid-Autumn, you�ll be able to see Chang Er and the rabbit which is keeping her company. Another legend has its roots in 14th century China. The people of Yuan Dynasty were living under the tyrannical rule of a Mongolian ruler who, in order to safeguard his empire, had forbidden the people to possess any tools, including kitchen knives.

A Chinese leader Zhu Yuan Zhang, wanted to bring the people together to overthrow the tyrant�s rule. He had to find a way of putting out the word without arousing the suspicion of the Mongolians, and a comrade came up with the idea of stuffing a paper message �Strike on Mid-Autumn night� into freshlymade round cakes, which were then distributed as gifts to the people and the rebel army.

On Mid-Autumn night (the night of the year when the moon is at its brightest), the people united and overthrew the Yuan Dynasty to establish the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368 � 1644). To commemorate the successful rebellion, the Chinese began the custom of eating mooncakes on Mid-Autumn, or the 15th day of every eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. Mooncakes are sweet, round cakes traditionally filled with lotus seed paste, or fatty meat and melon seeds.

For those who are interested in knowing more in detail about the festival here are some sites that are worth checking out with pictures and all ..

http://www.singaporesights.com/festivals/festival-celebrations-in-2007/mid-autumn-festival-2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_Autumn_Festival

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/mooncake/a/moonfestival.htm

http://www.chiff.com/home_life/holiday/harvest-moon-festival.htm

http://www.moe.gov.sg/.../digital_photos3.htm