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Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节

Written by Nicholas Chan on October 6, 2006 – 1:14 pm -

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival - 中秋节快乐

The Mid-Autumn Festival (Traditional Chinese: 中秋節, Simplified Chinese: 中秋节; pinyin: Zhōngqiūjié; Korean: Ch’usǒk or Chuseok 추석/秋夕; Vietnamese Tết Trung Thu; Taiwanese Tion Chhiu;also known as the Moon Festival, Mooncake Festival, or the August Moon Festival. In Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia, it may be referred to as the Lantern Festival, similar in name to a different festival which falls on the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year) is a popular Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China’s Zhou Dynasty.

The Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Lunar calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian Calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. At this time, the moon is at its fullest and brightest, marking an ideal time to celebrate the abundance of the summer’s harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the moon cake, of which there are many different varieties.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Lunar calendar (the other being the Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Asian family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. It is also common to have barbecues outside under the moon, and to put pomelo rinds on one’s head. Brightly lit lanterns are often carried around by children. Together with the celebration, there appear some special customs in different parts of the country, such as burning incense, planting sweet-olive trees, lighting lanterns on towers, and fire dragon dances. Shops selling mooncakes, before the festival, often display pictures of Chang’e, floating to the moon. Continues reading…

I see no round bright moon tonight. What I see is the hazzy sky, blurry and looks like fog, but it is dry, thanks to our neighbour country Indonesia for the forest burning, and the wind for blowing the haze to Penang. Why burn? Don’t you know that forest burning can increase polution?! Kids out there might carrying little lantern with candle or electric powered lantern walking around the street, but with this dangerous haze, I wonder will they stay indoor or outdoor. Last time, the lanterns (A shape of something, with a candle in it, glows, look nice, you can imagine a transparent garfield figure with a candle in the centre.) is made of papers and colour transparent sheet, now is very different already, the have plastic latern, with a LED lamp, and a buzer playing mono tone. x), few years later, there might be a lantern that allow you to plug in your flash drive to play your mp3 songs with built in speaker, wahahaha! Or maybe there won’t be kids playing with lantern, all kids gather around and have PSP LAN Party, that sounds cool! Still remember my dad told me that when he was 14 years old, he still play with lantern, now I don’t, I just sit here and blog and mid-autumn chit chat with friends on Live Messenger. Some friends in school told me that they go to dinner with relatives tonight and some go for movie, no celebration for me, staying at home blogging, have online game session with friends later, watch DVDs, eat ice cream, play PS2 =) Dad just said going out later, will ask him where he go and I might following, so school was normal, Form 3 just ended their PMR Examination, going crazy I guess and that’s all.

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