2012 Mid-Autumn Festival in Chinatown

Hello - my name is Sophia.  I am nine years old and have lived in Singapore for five months.  This is my first blog post from Singapore!

Have you ever gone to the Lantern Festival?  Well, if not, you should read about it now!

This weekend, as we walked through the crowded streets of Chinatown, we saw thousands of lanterns light up the sky.  We also watched as an enormous red dragon danced down the street. My brother, my dad and I dropped out of the crowds and went through the busy food courts. 

Once we broke free of the food courts, we saw hundreds of tiny shops, overflowing with souvenirs such as beautiful chinese lanterns, colorful dragon puppets, and a huge variety of mooncakes.  We then found and bought our lanterns and went home to relax for the rest of the night. 

Now you know what the Lantern Festival is like, so I hope you visit next year!

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Now, it's Jason's turn.....

Yes - our outing to the 2012 Mid-Autumn Festival (also recognized as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival) was a nice family adventure.  Unfortunately, Jennifer was continuing to recover from her broken leg, so Sophia, Cooper and I were on this excursion without her.  

The festival is a traditional Chinese harvest festival, celebrated on the 15th day of of the eighth Chinese lunar month (try saying that 5 times fast).  From what I've gathered, the festival, lanterns and mooncakes are linked to a mythical moon goddess, Chang E.  The 15th day of the 8th lunar month is the day called "Mid-Autumn" and the night of the 15th day of the 8th lunar month is known as the "Night of the Moon".  The festival itself is one of the four most important Chinese holidays...and they really celebrate it in Singapore!

We made our way to the festival and immediately recognized the crowds - even several MRT stops away.  Upon arriving in Chinatown, several streets were cleared for a pending parade, so we made our way to the side streets to look for souvenir lanterns and explore the hundreds of shopping stalls.  As Sophia noted, we saw everything from decorative lanterns to medicinal oddities (like snakes, centipedes, and mice in a jar)  Luckily, I was feeling relatively healthy, so we skipped the local Obamacare offerings and focused on lanterns for the kids.

Every stall carried their own unique variety of lanterns.  Some were very traditional, others included Angry Bird, Hello Kitty and other themed lanterns.  We stuck with the traditional style and found lanterns both kids really liked after checking a dozen or so stalls to compare prices and negotiate reasonable prices.

Aside from the lanterns, the festival (and Chinatown in general) had a very energetic vibe.  Restaurants are mixed among the shopping stalls and the air was filled with the smells of fish ball soup and flame grilled chicken, seafood and other "stuff" that I could not identify by sight or smell.  Still - it all looked and smelled amazing.  The crowd was a mix of locals and tourists, with everyone seemingly enjoying the festival and the sights and sounds that came with it.

As far as the "mooncakes"... in these we did not partake.  I've heard co-workers describe them as similar to donuts, but I insist they don't even come close to a Krispy-Kreme or Dunkin Donuts Boston Creme in my opinion.  Once the ingredients were discussed - lard, flour, sugar, lotus paste, beans, double egg yolks, etc. - my assumptions were confirmed.  Truth be told, I've tried a few different kinds and they are not bad... but compared to a donut?  I don't think so.

After visiting dozens of stalls, avoiding mooncakes, and exploring the streets of Chinatown for more than two hours, we made our way towards open streets to find a cab and a ride home.  Though we didn't stick around long enough to take in the pyrotechnics or the entire parade - which concluded at 10 pm, we really enjoyed the festival and it's clearly among several activities I'm looking forward to again next year.