Mid-Autumn Festival

This weekend we participated in the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. It's held during the 8th lunar month each year and the biggest night to celebrate is the 15th night, when the moon is at its fullest. It's also known as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival. During this time, farmers traditionally celebrate the end of summer harvest and gather with loved ones to admire the harvest moon. The 15th night fell on October 3 this year and we celebrated with the Chinese community.

Six families from our condo complex gathered and walked down to Chinatown where we enjoyed chicken satay, pineapple rice and Tiger beers on Food Street. It rained a little bit on and off during the evening but thankfully never hard enough to spoil our fun. After dinner, we made our way down to the lantern procession. I expected we would stand on the side of the road with our paper lanterns and watch the action. As it turned out, everyone participates in the procession. So, our group of 23 Americans and Australians were engulfed in a sea of Chinese people in a parade of sorts. It was cool to see the lanterns that other people carried for the occasion. They clearly did not get theirs free from the local shopping mall like us! In a reversal from the normal routine of people taking pictures of our girls, I paused to photograph a girl dressed in traditional Chinese dress with her beautiful fish lantern.

According to the locals, the Mid-Autumn Festival is second only to the Chinese New Year in importance. While I did not see as many decorations around town for this festival, I definitely had my fair share of opportunities to sample and buy moon cakes. The Chinese share these pastries with their family and friends during the festival. Since it's a sweet, naturally I had to try it. The outer layer is good but it's filled with lotus paste and unless it's flavored with something additional, it offers very little taste of its own. My verdict was that like most sweets here, it's a waste of calories.

Elizabeth's swim teacher, Coach Bob, was the first person to recommend attending the festival. He spoke about how the children enjoy carrying candle-filled lanterns and how beautiful they are. I'm glad we knew about the event because I feel Chinese festivals have a magical quality to them. The lights and decorations are amazing and the participants honor the tradition in a such a humble manner that you can sense they have been celebrating this way for thousands of years. The Dean family loved participating this year!