Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Mid Autumn Festival Part 2 - This Little Light of Mine

As you all know I spent the weekend checking out all the celebrations and traditions for the Mid Autumn festival. And Moon Cakes turned out to be sort of unfortunate tasting “treat”. However much I eschewed the Moon Cake, I did really get in to the Lantern Festival part of the celebration.

Anyone who has ever been to a party at my San Francisco house will remember that I always had a bit of an infatuation with the Chinese lantern, maybe it’s a bit of the Blanche Dubois in me but I think the light from a paper lantern is just pure magical! As you can imagine I was in hog heaven at the lantern festival.


The tradition of the festival is that families gather for a large meal and then families light the lanterns and go out to watch the moon rise. This is a great night for kids because they get to stay up late and generally get to select a special lantern for the occasion. You are supposed to be able to wish on the moon for luck and your lantern reflects the light in your life.



The shapes and sizes of the lanterns are varied and the majority of them are the traditional paper ones, oblong or round with a silky tassel at the bottom. Lanterns in specific shapes are popular. The most common shapes are: rabbits (for the Rabbit in the Moon) Lotus Flower, Start Fruit (In season during the fall). The other favorite shape is the fish, which represents wisdom that comes with age. Naturally I was drawn to the fish and hung one up for luck.









There are so many pictures from my night out looking at the lanterns that I can’t possibly put them all up here but if you want to take a look, check out the link below


Latern Festival Pictures

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