The Moon Festival!

On Monday was the Chinese Moon Festival in Singapore. Legend has it that a young girl named Chang Er flew to the moon and has lived ever since. It is believed that you may even get to see her dancing on the moon during the festival.

Additionally, this festival is a time for family occasions and reunions. When the full moon rises, families gather together, gazing upon the moon, eat moon cakes and some even sing moon poems.

As you all know, my favourite thing about Singapore is experiencing the culture. Chinese New Year was probably, for me, the best experience of this year, so I was incredibly excited to experience another tradition; the Moon Festival.

At university, about a week before the moon festival, I asked some of my Singaporean friends what the best way to experience the festival was. I wanted to get the full, authentic experience! So we sat down and they told me that I should go and buy lanterns and head to the closest park to my home. Here, children and families will gather, with sparklers and run around carrying lanterns. With this in mind, my next stop was to buy some lanterns and get prepared!

With my unlit lanterns in hand, my family and I headed to Bishan Park on Monday evening. We walked around the massive park, hoping to find plenty of people there celebrating.

Soon the sky darkened, and the moon, so full and bright, helped light the path, guiding us to where everyone was celebrating.

From a distance I spotted bright orange lanterns, delicately hanging off the branches of trees accompanied by the loud sounds of laughing children. I then excitedly lit my lantern.

It was such a lovely night. Wandering around outside in the evening in Singapore is so pleasant and refreshing; you would hardly think that this countries climate is almost unbearable during the day. I loved just simply carrying my lantern around the park and people watching. There was such a wide, colourful assortment of lanterns held by people of all ages, from ones that played music, Disney characters and some that even had flashing lights on them.

I was totally surprised by how many people showed up, being a Monday night. It was so busy! There were people everywhere in big groups celebrating.

I had such an enjoyable time, and will treasure this experience. I am once again going to say (for the millionth time) how much I just LOVE experiencing this culture. I am always blown away but what I get to see with my own eyes and be a part of now that I am living here. Some of these traditions I obliviously and ignorantly had never even heard of until I moved to Singapore.  I am so interested in this culture and am so glad I have been able to understand some of South East Asia’s traditions while I have been living here. I hope I get to experience many more!