Mid Autumn Festival

The full moon tomorrow, September 14 this year, will get significant appreciation as it is the 15th day of the eight lunar month in the Chinese calendar, and this date is celebrated and popularly known as the Mid Autumn Festival (aka Lantern Festival aka Mooncake Festival).

This festival is celebrated by tradition with many legends purportedly leading to its inception. Among the most popular and the one I like is about Chang-Er, the wife of Hou-Yi. To escape her husband, she stole the elixir of immortality and floated up to the moon becoming the Moon Goddess.

I still remember when young how much we as kids anticipated the arrival of this festival. Earlier, my mom would bring us out with dad and we would buy lots of candles and a lantern each. The 15th night would be spent lighting candles and taking a stroll through the neighborhood, lanterns lit with candles in hand (back then the crime level was virtually unnoticeable).

When I was much older, we spent the night with an open table under the gaze of the moon, laid out with praying paraphernalia, fruits (inclusive of the Pomelo), Nuts (shaped like 2 bull horns), Peanuts, Watermelon seeds, Chinese Tea, and of course the Mooncake.

Tomorrow night I'm looking forward to reenacting this pleasant experience of a festival we all know as the Mid Autumn Festival.