Saturday 22 September 2007

Lantern festival

My nieces and nephew were playing with paper lanterns tonight celebrating Lantern Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar (25 September 2007 to be exact). This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest.

Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat round moon cakes while the kids walk around the neighbourhood carrying brightly-lit lanterns.
Let me get a candle first. (Of course hers is not lighted up. It's too dangerous for a 3 year old)
I'm ready now. Shall we go?

Walking around with the lanterns.

Blowing out the candle.

6 comments:

Amel said...

HE HE HE...in Indonesia there aren't any lantern festivals (except when there's some kind of exhibition), but I LOVE moon cakes (only the one filled with chocolate). VERY VERY YUMMY!!! I want the whole big moon cake just for me!!! *greedy grin*

Anonymous said...

When I was a kid the festival usually ended with our lanterns going up in flames!

Anonymous said...

Oh that's cool! We have the same here in Japan, but we just visited the cemetary on that day...

Anonymous said...

So much fun, those traditional family outings. Warm memories in the making.

Blur Ting said...

Yah, such activities are really fun for kids. I used to look forward to such festivities when I was a kid.

During those days, we would walk around the village with lots of other kids. We went around trying to make each other's lanterns go up in flames too! Oh what fun!

The Real Mother Hen said...

Oh well I forgot it's the Lantern Festival :)

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