In Singapore, celebrations really kick off when the sun goes down. When the moon rises, joss sticks are lit, shots are blasted into the sky in noisy celebration and families sit around, eating and joking by the light of the moon.Ĭhinese Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake. In the morning, men head into the hills to hunt finches and pheasants to feast on women make for the lakes and ponds to catch fishy delights and old ladies join in to help prepare the meal. In Yunnan province, the Dai people still worship the moon. While celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival in one of China’s major cities is enthralling, why not spend the festival with one of the country’s ethnic minorities to enjoy it all from a different angle? By booking onto Insight Guides’ Incredible Yunnan trip today, you can spend the day in one of China’s most ethnically diverse provinces. Here are some great places in which to celebrate… Of course, traditions vary from place to place. Lanterns are also lit on this day, and tots carrying paper lanterns congregate in open spaces or join in the festival parades. Some of the younger generations now prefer more creative varieties of the tradition, such as Hägen-Dazs ice-cream mooncakes and gourmet chocolate adaptions. Tang yuan, glutinous rice-flour balls with sweet fillings in sugar syrup, and yue bing, a cake baked specifically for this occasion, are also often eaten. Under the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), when China was occupied by the Mongols from the north, the Han Chinese often communicated with each other by hiding messages inside mooncakes.įillings vary but are usually a rich mixture of sugar, egg yolk and bean paste. The festival is celebrated today primarily by the eating of mooncakes, which themselves have played an important part in history. There are also various legends that surround the festival – the most popular being about Chang-E, a fairy who flew to the moon. During China’s Zhou Dynasty, moon worshiping was common, especially in autumn the practice was believed to ensure a plentiful harvest the following year. The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon (or Mooncake) Festival and occurring on 4 October in 2017, originated more than 3,000 years ago.
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