Similar to Thanksgiving for Americans, Mid-Autumn is a day for everyone to return home, have a large family dinner, and spend the rest of the night together under the moon enjoying each other's company.
How did I spend this traditional holiday?
I had dinner with a group of Taiwanese and Mainland China students. We had a wonderful hot-pot dinner that most of the girls helped to prepare. For the Taiwanese, this was their traditional way of celebrating Mid-Autumn; hot-pot with friends/family. I was able to meet some new people and practice my Pu-Tong-Hua :)
I had dinner with a group of Taiwanese and Mainland China students. We had a wonderful hot-pot dinner that most of the girls helped to prepare. For the Taiwanese, this was their traditional way of celebrating Mid-Autumn; hot-pot with friends/family. I was able to meet some new people and practice my Pu-Tong-Hua :)
After dinner a friend and I decided to go to Victoria Park to meet up with another friend and see the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance. This event was inscribed onto the third national list of intangible cultural heritage by the Chinese Ministry of Culture in 2011.
During the plague in the 1880s, it is said that this dragon made of grass and incense is what helped end the tragedy. Every year on the 14th, 15th, and 16th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar Tai Hang villagers would parade the dragon around as a blessing and serve as a reminder of what the dragon had done for them.
The dragon is 67 meters long. Its head weights 48kg. The body is divided into 32 segments and uses up to a total of 72,000 incense sticks during the three day performance. This event is supported by nearly 300 performers.
Victoria park also hosted the one2free Lantern Wonderland display. Large lanterns are displayed through out the park for everyone to view, while booths are setup along the side selling authentic mid-autumn snacks and hand-held lanterns. The attention getter of the entire display was a 10 meter high and 20 meter in diameter semi-spherical representation of the "Rising Moon." This moon was made out of 7,000 plastic bottles, steel frames, cable wires, and energy-saving LED lights. This light up sculpture was made solely using recyclables and sat on a pool of water giving the illusion of a full moon. Every fifteen minutes the sculpture would put on a light show paired with music giving it's audience a visual appearance of the different phases of the moon.
After returning back to the dorms my friends and I enjoyed some authentic and non-authentic moon cakes; a must during mid-autumn. And of course I ended the night four hours later after having shared a bunch of stories and laughter with my floor-mates. Although my goal for mid-autumn was to experience the authentic family gatherings, candle lanterns, and bathing under the moonlight; I had gotten instead a sense of community and aloha from fellow floor and hall mates, something I don't mind settling for.
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