spy 07: Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as “Harvest Festival”, which is one of the most well known Chinese Festival none other than the “moon festival’, always on the 15-th of the 8-th Month by the Chinese Lunar Calendar, this year, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on 25th Sep.

This is a day to worship the moon god. According to folk legend, this day is also the birthday of the earth god (T'u-ti Kung). This festival signals that the year's hard work in the fields will soon come to an end, with only the harvest left to attend to. People use this opportunity to express their gratitude to heaven (represented by the moon) and earth (symbolized by the earth god) for the blessings they have enjoyed over the past year.

In Singapore, the most popular activities are moon gazing, moon cakes and pomelos eaten.
Moon gazing is an essential part of this festival. On this day, the moon is at its roundest and brightest. This is also a time for families to tryst and pray for togetherness, symbolized by the roundness of the moon.

The Chinese believe in praying to the moon god for protection, family unity, and good fortune. The round "moon cakes" eaten on this festival are symbolic of family unity and closeness. Now there are many different type and flavours of mooncake in the market. Yam mooncake, lotus paste mooncake are traditional mooncake, with one or two, even four yolks. New style mooncake like ice-cream mooncake, durian mooncake, flavours like pandan, greentea, cheese and raisins mooncake are also loved by Singaporean.

Being in a multi-racial community, the SPY07 decided that we too should join in the celebration. So, right after our cultural training, we proceed to Singapore Management University, which is just a block away from our training venue, to lit up the lanterns and have a bite of the delicious mooncake.