Today is Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) and it is a working day in Singapore. In Korea, it is called Chuseok (추석-秋夕) and they have three days of holiday in a row - one day for the Koreans to make their journey back home; one day to celebrate Chuseok and one day to return to their place of stay. In China, I heard, they have a week of holiday when it comes to 'Zhong Qiu Jie' celebration.
In Singapore, Mid-Autumn Festival is about family reunion, eating of mooncake and pomelo and lantern parade. The festivity mood has been rather low probably because there is no autumn here in the first place and there is no public holiday for festival celebration. However, in the last few years, things are getting slightly better. There are more lantern parades organised. Chinatown was dressed and lighted up for the festival. A lot of creativity was also given to the making and packaging of mooncakes. Besides the standard lotus-bean paste mooncake, there are also novelty mooncakes like chocolate, ice cream and durian mooncakes.
To me, the festival always remind me that while people may be separated by distance on this Earth, we will always be looking upon the same moon.
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In Singapore, Mid-Autumn Festival is about family reunion, eating of mooncake and pomelo and lantern parade. The festivity mood has been rather low probably because there is no autumn here in the first place and there is no public holiday for festival celebration. However, in the last few years, things are getting slightly better. There are more lantern parades organised. Chinatown was dressed and lighted up for the festival. A lot of creativity was also given to the making and packaging of mooncakes. Besides the standard lotus-bean paste mooncake, there are also novelty mooncakes like chocolate, ice cream and durian mooncakes.
To me, the festival always remind me that while people may be separated by distance on this Earth, we will always be looking upon the same moon.
The feeling will be vast different when you look at the moon from Seoul and I look at the moon from Singapore....
ReplyDeleteYes, maybe. Sometimes, looking at the moon can make one homesick.
ReplyDelete맞아......
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information on Chuseok. I was able to answer my Korean friend when asked whether I know Chuseok.
ReplyDeleteNice to know that little piece of information has been useful. 다시 놀러 오세요. (Dashi Nol-lor Oseyo, Please come back to 'play' again) ^^
ReplyDeleteI will. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThe Korean Mid Autumn Festival is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about Korean culture and traditions.
ReplyDelete