Mid-Autumn or Mooncake Festival used to be a joyous occasion, both for the children and the adults.
It was a time when children would play colorful lanterns and candles outside their homes. The adults would eat mooncakes and sip hot Chinese tea while admiring the full moon.
But have you notice this festival is getting less and less popular as the years goes by? This year, the festive air is totally missing.
No children staying near my house were seen playing with the lanterns or candles outside their houses. Maybe they were busy with their ipads. My own kids have grown up and were shy to be seen playing with lanterns or candles.
I used to buy several boxes of mooncakes but now I settled for one box only. They are getting more and more expensive. A decent box from Foh San Restaurant costed me RM60.
With fewer people celebrating the festival, I think the moon is feeling lonely. She has less admirers now.
Do you also share my sentiment – that the moon is getting lonely?
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188 Hugh Low Street, Ipoh 
After becoming a teenage, I share your current sentiment. I had other better things to do than to sip tea, looking boringly at the full moon or lighting up the neighbourhood with lanterns; exploring around in the dark. Looking back, I do miss those “good old days”. Times have changed.
Now time has changed once more for me. However, the moon is not getting lonely. Most of the time, we are now gathered inside (the night can be nippy here in Los Angeles), playing mahjong or socializing as a party. We now have a tradition with my friends that instead of reciting poetry (we aren’t that a great bunch of literati), we now have people read out dirty and the filthiest limericks for all to enjoy! It has become another sort of adult version of Halloween.
Personally, I would like to spend an hour or two outside in the garden with a group of “more educated” to play classical Chinese games on poetry composition on the spot and sipping some hot concoction!
Usually in the end, we have to give away all these away to neighbourhood kids or forcing everyone to bring back their left over desserts. We cannot afford to have our expanding waistlines going unchecked! Alas, time has changed us. In our youth, we cannot afford these desserts because of financial reasons but now, we cannot afford them due to health or vanity reasons! How cruel the hand of time can be.
In preparation for the quality time… Some friends had already started on some poems. As we are no match for the literati of the past, we have to do some pre-thinking and discuss on the constructions we came up with. For example, a friend wrote,
菊笑中秋笑脸扬， Chrysanthenmums smiling in mid autumn, puts smiling faces on us. 河塘月影桂花香。 In the moonlight, fragrance wafting from the osmanthus by the lotus pond. 声声琴曲吟不尽， Unending strains of the zither flowing through, 万种情思心中藏 。A myriad feelings lay hidden in one’s heart.
So I have to come up with a matching poem in couplet form to hers:
酒閑午夜閑情醉, Midnight wine in leisure, leisure feelings,
庭院星情荷葉冷. Garden starlight, lotus withering in cold.
句句詩歌賦無窮, Each poetic sentence uttered in endless variations.
千滴心緒臉上露. A thousand tears and emotions welling up to the face for all to see.
The August Moon Festival is an annual Event at Boston Chinatown Theatre District that attract over at least 40,000 visitors from New England region USA. No Entrance Fee required, when I was Emcee for that Event in the last several years we also allow Local and National Politicians after the asian Votes to come aboard at our Invitations to speak to their electorates ! Moon-Cakes usually imported from Hong Kong or San Francisco, New York City cost about USD $20-00 or less !I have published an Article about the Historical Importance of this August Moon Festival from our Chinese Sorces ! Americans are fascinated with our Chinese Asian Culture. Nowadays in Beijing China because of the Disputes over those Off Shore Islands between Japan and China the Moon Cakes are made and embossed with the message “Down With the Japs Aggression ! ” and so it goes the Moon Cakes used to be de Symbol Vehicle for the Han Chinese Up-Risig against the Mongols Yuan Dynasty ! [DIE NASTY leh] My article remains a classic and used for children’s teachings in English on Cultural Traditions of the Asians !If you want my Article you can access it on Sampan Asian-American Bi-weekly a bi-lingual Newspapers Magazine Format published by the Asian-American Civic Association of Greater Boston,MA. USA or send me your Address Email or otherwise leh !
Gerald Heng Sr.
Metrowest Boston,MA. USA.
Hi Gerald,
Welcome to my blog! Glad to hear that Mid-Autumn Festival is still widely celebrated by the Chinese in USA. Keep it up. Isn’t it ironic that the Americans are enthusiastic about Chinese culture while many young Chinese are shying away from cultural activities?
My Dear Jeff, In the Southern Hemisphere, the moon is full and bright but not very big in size. It is now almost 2300 hours Sunday Australian Eastern Standard Time and l am looking in a northerly direction where the moon is located half way in the sky at an angle of 60 degree from where I stand in Sydney..
It is Spring down under and the nights are still nippy and I spent my.八月十五 night surfing the net and reading your response to 188 Hugh Low St blog. What a wonderful way to celebrate the August Moon Festival in a highly intellectual way – – the prose. I am getting more impressed by you, Xiao Xifu, who not only show intellectual prowess in mah-jong but also in the Chinese language. I am afraid I cannot match you. Here is my little contribution and I hope you can translate that to Chinese to make this old fella happy. Thanks.
Title – Where did my August Moon go?
Was it once, when the full moon glows; colourful lanterns ebb and flow
Have these lights dimmed as we get old? Alas, the lantern, where did mine go?
Happy August Moon Festival to all – young and old.
Hi Jeff and Anthony,
Thank you, both of you, for the beautiful poems. Clap, clap! 🙂
Mid Autumn Festival is a time for family reunion. It saddens me to see this festival getting less popular now. Not many people bothers anymore. Our children and their children will have less and less to celebrate…… 😦
As for the sinful mooncakes (too oily and sweet), don’t worry…they only appear once a year and anyway, they are too expensive to be afforded the whole year round… 🙂
I shared your sentiments. When I was young, I lived in a small town called Kampar. During the night of the mis autumn festival, we will have an early dinner. Mum will prepare all sorts of foods and fruits and setup a table outside our house for prayer. After the prayer and offering, we will be sitting around the table and enjoy the food as a family. We will talk, play and laugh. Now I’ve grown up and have a family on my own, we no longer have such gatherings. One of my brother at JB, and another one at Sitiawan. I do miss the good old days. Not only the moon, I’m getting lonely too on that day too 🙂
Hi Andrew,
Do you think there will come a day when something like this will happen:-
Mom: Do you know what is Mid-Autumn Festival?
Kid: Huh, what’s that? (shaking his head, eyes fixing on his iPad)
I certainly do not hope this will happen. I want my kid to understand our tradition and culture on their own and not through devices like iPad. I think i’m a traditional guy living in an urban area. I still prefer those paper lantern that I play in my childhood than those electronic ones that every child is holding nowadays. haha
Hi Andrew,
I’m with you on this! Like you, I’m a traditionalist too. When my kids were still very young, I made it a point to celebrate every festivals and explained to them the significance of each of them. Looking back now, I’m glad to have bought them those lanterns made from colorful glass papers and not those battery operated ones. At least they got to play the same lanterns that I had once played when I was a little girl…… 🙂