Mid-Autumn Festival, or Zhongqiu Jie (中秋节)

Today, the fifteen day of the eighth lunar month, is Mid-Autumn Festival, or Zhongqiu Jie (中秋节). It is also known as the Mooncake Festival and the Lantern Festival. It is said that on this day of the year, the moon is the fullest and brightest.

The three places that celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival in a big way in Singapore are the Chinese Garden, Chinatown, and the Gardens by the bay. There are also smaller celebrations in the estates all over the island.

I have never been to the Chinese Garden during the Mid-Autumn month. But apparently, the display of lanterns are quite impressive with various sizes, shapes and designs, some of which are very intricate.

In Chinatown, the streets are decorated with lanterns. Every year, there is a different theme, and planning for the festival begins early in the year.

This is the centerpiece for this year. This year's theme is rejoice in the family, or something to that extend.

A shop in Chinatown selling moon-cakes and lanterns.

A nicely package box of four moon-cakes.

A roll of four moon-cakes. This cost a quarter of the price of those above. They are mass produced in factories. So, the quality is not as good as those in the smaller shops.

There are many folklore and legends regarding the celebration of this Festival which started some 2,000 years ago. When young, the legends sounded interesting, but as one gets older, one will no doubt find them preposterous.

The version I believe in is that, once upon a time in China, farmers celebrated their bountiful harvest on this day when the moon was brightest. Families gathered to feast and make merry, and moon gaze while enjoying bean paste based pastries which they called moon-cakes.

In those days, there was no electricity, so the farmers made paper lanterns and hung them up for light. They also made small paper lanterns for the children to carry around their compound, to keep them amused.

Later on, during the late Yuan Dynasty, there was unrest. The rebels communicated the date to revolt by hiding the message in the moon-cakes. The revolt was successful, and the new emperor declared the moon-cake festival an official annual event.

When the Chinese immigrants headed down to South-East Asia, they brought the festival with them. Unfortunately, the meaning of this custom/tradition was lost in transition. Nowadays, most people do not know the story behind this festival.

The festival is now very commercialized. Businesses cash in on this occasion to churn out all sorts of flavoured moon-cake. The fancy moon-cakes, together with their even more fancy containers, are very costly. A nicely packaged box of four moon-cakes can cost between $50 to $80 SGD.

Click on the photo to see the bigger picture.

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