Festival of the Moon.. more or less ^.^

It is the mid autmn festival for Chinese around the globe. As I enjoyed some warm Tie Kuan Yin tea and savour some mooncake, I reminisce what this festival was like in my younger days, and also what it has become today.

I do not come from a very traditional Chinese family. I speak more English with my core family than any Chinese dialect. I can only comprehend basic Chinese myself. Therefore this has hampered my understanding of this festival somewhat. My information sources for this festival included cartoons drawn by Lat. I remember a cartoon that had characters in ancient China, eating mooncake and pulling out pieces of paper containing secret messages in the cakes. I also remember the story of an archer and his wife. There are lots of versions to this tale. Visit wikipedia for quite a good summary of the popular versions.

traditional paper lanterns

I do remember mooncakes and playing with lanterns at night. I remember lanterns made of coloured paper, and lit with actual candles. Of course this was the most fun thing of the festival to a child. Occasionally someones lantern will glow a little brighter than others, and also hotter than others (aka on fire hyuk hyuk hyuk). Later on, we had battery operated lanterns made with coloured cellophane. And nowadays we have lanterns in hard plastic that make strange noises and come in every guise imaginable. Pokemon motifs were quite popular a while back. I had some family members with lanterns of the yellow lantern going "Pika! Pika Pika! Pika CHUuuuuu..."

Mooncakes too have seen a transformation. We used to have only 2 main types: Lotus Seed, Red Bean. I think next came the Mix Nuts, then the snow skins. and now a plethora of others. Corn, durian, green tea, coffee, cheese, chocolate... even some with meat in them! As with some experiments, some work... some do not. The durian snowskin mooncake from Tai Thong is surprisingly good. I tried an orange flavoured one from another brand.. and it was just weird. Mooncakes are big business nowadays. The box which you get mooncakes in are works of art themselves. It is common to see every major hotel's chefs making these for sale too.

I wonder what further changes we will see to this festival in the coming years? Will paper lanterns still be available? Will we get ratatouille flavoured mooncakes? Will we get the story of the archer and his wife done in 3D models like the Final Fantasy movie?

I sit here with my cup of steaming tea, and a slice of lotus paste mooncake, listening to the friendly banter with family members... pondering if more is really needed.

Then... I hear it. The unmistakable sound of...

"Pika! Pika Pika! Pika CHUuuuuu..."