Mid-Autumn Festival

On Sept 22nd, the mid-autumn festival will be celebrated with mooncakes and lanterns. People will join those of Chinese descent to enjoy the mooncakes while watching the moon and the children will be playing with lighted lanterns of different shapes and designs. That night the moon will be at its largest and prettiest.

Many legends surround this festival but the main one (narrated by my grandma) is that of Chang Er who flew away to the moon after stealing and swallowing the pill of immortality, to prevent the wicked emperor from consuming it so that he would not be able to oppress his people for eternity.

The traditional mooncakes were usually lotus paste with single or double salted egg yolk and red bean paste (tausa). Children were given mooncake biscuits put in small mini replicas of pig cages.
In the olden days, couples found guilty of adultery were sentenced by village elders to drown in pig cages. These biscuits can take different shapes. Today we saw some in the shape of piglets but these were not put into the mini pig cages.


Nowadays the mooncakes are of countless varieties, ranging from the traditional cakes with lotus paste filling and salted egg yolks to modern ones filled with liquer, and others with pastes made from different fruit and vegetables.
There are also green tea and herbal mooncakes, tiramisu and cheese and chocolate mooncakes as well! Fortunately they also have sugarless mooncakes now so that diabetics can also enjoy them.
Then there are the snowskin mooncakes. The skin is not baked but the paste filling is cooked. These snowskin mooncakes also come in many varieties
The durian snowskin mooncakes which we were given as a gift were absolutely delicious. The durian flesh was very aromatic and the mooncake skin was very thin unlike others which were thicker.

Chinatown has its own decorations to welcome the event. This year there are lanterns of different colors.

At Clarke Quay, along the Singapore River, there are lantern floats on the river,

and along the banks are lanterns made to represent the different zodiac signs.

There are many stalls on the bank, showcasing Taiwanese food but they are only open in the evening into the late night when the place will come alive with lights and tourists. There is an on-going promotion of Taiwan at the moment to encourage tourists to visit it.
Meanwhile in Kuala Lumpur there will also be events staged to celebrate the festival and lanterns will also be featured.

Happy Autumn Festival, everyone!