I have fond memories of the Mid Autumn festival. It was such a great time for me when I was a little boy. After class, there was a big car waiting for me in front of my school to pick me up to for the yearly party for kids at my
dad's company. If we studied well then we got some books, notebooks and a beautiful star lantern. It's one of the best parts of my childhood that I remember.
About 20 years ago, we celebrated our festival in a very simple way as life was not really as good as it is now. We usually made our own bamboo lanterns of different shapes like stars, long and round or maybe sometimes animal and car shapes. I used to really look forward making and wandering around with our lanterns, singing. At the end, we always stopped at one of the neighborhood houses to have some candy and cake and keep singing together. It was really cool.
Nowadays, people seem to buy lanterns for their children. There are also all kinds of electrical things with horrible happy birthday songs or some other crazy songs playing when they're turned on. In the past, some families did buy lanterns for their children but the percentage was not very high. Also at that time we had to use candles to light the lanterns and we have to re-light them many many times if it was a windy night. This was also a part of the fun and kids used to tease each other about how good their lanterns were.
This time of year is a very good time to go to the old quarter to take photos of moon cake shops and lantern shops particularly in the evening, if you can stand the crowds. The old quarter is always packed in the days leading up to the festival because everyone takes their kids out for shopping and having a good time.
11 comments:
oh Tu! I loved the pictures; I wish I could be there. I heard that now they have Halloween style land turns and masks. How weird!
Haha---I used my father's speech-to-typing software, and it typed "land turns" instead of
"lanterns." I think it needs more training!
How wonderful! I am a faithful reader, and am trying to absorb as much as I can for my future daughter. Thank you for your insight.
I miss those old fashion lanterns that comes with Trung Thu. They're so much more beautiful than the store brought stuff. It's sad that people don't make them anymore.
Thanks for all comments. Have a great weekend.
My husband and my daughter enjoyed some moon cakes for Mid-Autumn festival.
My husband and my daughter enjoyed some moon cakes for Mid-Autumn festival.
Those pictures brought back some special memories of Tet Trung Thu. When I was a kid, my favorite lantern was a fish! I remembered those lanterns being made out of wood sticks and you had to be very careful with them because they were stretched so tight that could tear easily. Also, you can burn them if your candle didn't stay in the little "springy" thing. In the US, I have seen them with battery operated lights - so sad, but it's done for safety of the kids.
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Quite helpful piece of writing, much thanks for this article.
this festival is the greatest one from Japan ! there's no doubt about it
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