Mid-Autumn Festival

Yesterday was Mid-Autumn Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival is on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese (lunar) calendar and one of the most important Chinese holidays. It parallels the autumnal equinox of the solar calendar, when the moon is at its fullest and roundest. Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon and eat moon cakes under the moon together. Carrying brightly lit lanterns is also a custom.

Since JT had a last minute business trip to India (leaving me all alone for Mid-Autumn Festival), a couple friends and I had some moon cakes and then headed out to Victoria Park for the Mid-Autumn Celebration. The park was full of lanterns of all shapes and sizes:

The wall of lanterns:


Closeup of lanterns:


Dragon and phoenix lanterns:


Chinese chess board lanterns:


Closeup of chess piece (the character is pronounced "ma," which means horse and is also my mother's maiden name):


There were also many people in the park carrying their own lanterns. It was very crowded, so we didn't stay very long. We grabbed a drink at a pub and then to end the evening we had a late-night snack at the famous 24-hour establishment of Tsui Wah. It wasn't the same with JT not around, but I saved him a moon cake so that we can celebrate together when he gets back to Hong Kong on Friday.