Mid-Autumn Festival

When we were staying in the kampong, Mid-Autumn Festivals were very fun. I don't remember much about mooncakes or pomelos or tea-sipping, but I recall that we had tonnes of fun with our lanterns!

The adults would give us some coins, which the older children (ie CP and YP) would help to toss and scatter onto the sandy grounds of the path under the 2 main clusters of bamboos located outside the gate to the Big House. All the children would then go about with our lighted lanterns and try to look for these coins. The 'rule' was Finders Keepers, so whoever successfully found the coins would get to keep the coins!

Many other children from neighbouring houses would join in the fun, too. So it was a really exciting time for us all! And it didn't quite matter who found the most coins or whether we found any at all - it was just fun playing this 'game' together.

It was also great fun when anyone's flame got blown out by the wind - the rest of us would shout excitedly, "救火啊！ 救火啊！" Then one of us would quickly offer to help re-light the candle using the 'fire' from our own lantern. This way, we helped one another (借火、借火！) and came to one another's rescue whenever we needed help.

I remember CP and YP would help us to replace the candle when ours got too short. I had not dared to do this myself then because the metal 'holder' for the candle would still be too hot for me to handle. At times like these, it was all important to have elder sisters to help you, ah! :)

Sometimes, some other children didn't monitor their candles and when all the wax was gone, the lantern would catch fire and the children would end up getting their lanterns burnt! Totally 'chao-dah'! When this happened, we would get so excited (again!) and shout, "火烧啦！火烧啦！"

In the year just before we moved out of the kampong, we also lighted up more lanterns and have them hung neatly in a row on some bamboo poles inside the compound fronting the Big House. This was to be our final kampong Mid-Autumn Festival celebration before our move to the no-open-compound 政府组屋. I remember that by then, some neighbours had already shifted out, so fewer children joined us that year.

As we monitored these lanterns, we joked a lot. I think Christopher and Nicholas were especially rowdy. Then, suddenly, one lantern's flame got blown off by the wind. So, Nicholas proceeded to try to re-light the candle. As he stood under the bamboo pole doing so, he got closer and closer to the neighbouring lantern (whose candle was burning out).

Moments later, to the shock of everyone, Nicholas' hair caught fire (without him realising it!) and I shouted, "Ah!!!!" It was so funny then, because Nick only looked up and asked, "Why? What's wrong?" Everyone laughed hilariously when he finally realised that his hair was on fire! Of course, the fire didn't last long because someone (I cannot remember who) helped to have it extinguished by slapping at it! Poor Nick!

In those days, not everyone could afford a commercially-produced lantern. Some of the kampong children who didn't get to own a purchased lantern, made theirs out of empty milkmaid condensed milk cans and Milo cans. Others used pomelo skins which had been skilfully taken off the fruit intact. Very interesting, hor?! We never see these anymore nowadays.

We were fortunate that Father and Mother bought us new lanterns every other year or so. Some weeks before the festival came, Father would either make a detour during our way home from his office (HA and I went to his office at 'po-duay' ie 坡底 every day with Mother when Mother brought him homecooked lunch and we would stay there till it was time to knock off from work at about 5pm) or make a special post-dinner trip, to the 2 gift hamper shops at Geylang (near City Plaza). (This is a photo borrowed from some hk web, mainly to show wide array of lanterns. Some designs still look the same as before.)

These 2 shops were a 中秋节 lanterns haven - many many beautiful and colourful lanterns of all shapes and sizes would be hung at these shops and we could select our preferred designs (so long as our chosen pieces were not too expensive)! In the 'later' years, only HA and I would go. We would help to choose one for CP and another for YP on their behalf.

I can recall only some of the designs we had gotten before - the coloured cellophane paper type: Dragon (CP's because it is her horoscope), Horse (YP's horoscope), Aeroplane (HA's), Dog (needless to say, this was mine!), Butterfly (cannot recall whose), Cockerel (also cannot recall whose), Rabbit (I think this was YP's but I am not sure) - the cloth with sequin type: Butterfly (mine), Dog (also mine - in fact, this was/is my favourite!), Starfruit (either CP's or YP's), Horse (YP's again!), don't-know-what Robot (HA's), Pretty Lantern 花灯(CP's or YP's) - the coloured paper 'ball' and 'tube' types (everyone had these in one year or other, depending on the prints). The paper 'ball' and 'tube' types were safest in the sense that the flames in these were least likely to be blown out by the wind.

Nowadays, the range of lanterns available is vastly different from those we had last time. Of the cellophane paper type, only a handful of designs remain available. Most are either Dragon or Fish. Occasionally, I see a pathetically miniature Aeroplane and a Cockerel. But all these 我都看不上眼 because their materials are inferior and workmanship poor.

The cloth with sequin type is even more limited these days. I saw one miserable Lotus Flower one the other day when I went Chinatown with my colleague. It looked quite awful because the cloth was not pulled taut and what should have been the sequin had been replaced by some coloured sticky tape only! 一丁点儿都不可以跟往年的灯笼比美！

The type of lanterns which is closest to what we had before, is the paper 'ball' and 'tube' types. These either have polka-dot or stripe prints. Some have cartoon prints, too.

There is also a variety of what I regard as 'fake lanterns' - the plastic inflatable ones with light bulb. These come in handy for young babies and toddlers, but are otherwise a big turn-off for me. There is yet another type of 'fake lanterns' - the hard plastic figurine types which usually come with blinking lights and irritatingly loud music! These are, in my view, the worst to have because they are more like toys than lanterns! I have never bought these myself, and R and I had had to give away several pairs of these which we received from colleagues and neighbours when WY and WF were younger. Then, there are also the type of light-bulbed Japanese/Taiwanese-inspired lanterns which come non-assembled. These are usually not lasting at all because the plastic sticks which must be assembled into a frame and the glossy-paper parts are merely clipped onto each other. Somehow, the joints will become loose very quickly, so these self-assembled lanterns fall apart easily.

This year, I didn't get any lanterns for WS and WP. YP told me that they no longer carry them (which is what I guessed, too). The only lanterns I bought were 3 pairs of paper 'tube' type - one set of Tom & Jerry for J and S and another identical set for WY and WF, and a pair of 福 for HA and M (since they have a new house now). I hope everyone likes theirs.

WY has chosen 'Tom' and WF has opted for 'Jerry'. Actually, come to think of it, I think these 2 boys are a bit like Tom and Jerry, hor - always bickering between themselves and yet quite inseparable. Hahaha...

When we were still staying in the kampong, there was an incident which even today, remains quite vivid to me. In those days, the lantern was held using an unpolished bamboo stick. The stick usually had splinters. Mother would usually scrap away these splinters using the kitchen kinfe before we were allowed to use the stick. In that particular year, she did the same. But that turned out to be insufficient because the angular edges of the stick caused a nasty accident.

One day some time after the Mid-Autumn Festival, HA and I were riding our tricycle and playing with some toys at home. Then we decided to 'park' the tricycle on its side and we pretended to be mechanics looking into the workings of the wheels etc. Suddenly, HA got some inspiration and turned to grab from nearby a bamboo stick which had been used just days earlier for his lantern. Before I could say or do anything, he plunged it right amongst the spokes of one tricycle wheel. Of course that jammed the wheel, and as he tried to free the stick, he slid his palm along the sharp edge of the bamboo stick. Almost instantly, blood gushed out of his palm! We were both shocked by the profuse bleeding and all the blood that seemed to flow non-stop from his hand!

He was of course rushed to the clinic crying in pain. I think he received several stitches that day. And lots of scolding from Mother. I was spared the bodily injury and pain, but not Mother's scolding and beating. Sigh. I remember that Mother had to keep changing the dressing for him for several days following the accident, and I had had to keep a 'low profile' to avoid further reprimands from her about the accident. (Actually, how was it my fault that he got injured this way? I still don't quite understand why I was punished.)

In recent years, I have tried to make Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations as lively and memorable for WY and WF as much as I can. But this is difficult. In the neighbourhood, there is absolutely nothing to look forward to. No 'dark' areas to allow our lanterns to glow bright and cheery, no companions to have fun with. Sigh.

Years ago when WY was still in preschool, the RC organised some parties for this festival. Although the participants had been largely made up of their 'inner circle' of their own supporters, Mother managed to buy 3 tickets (intended for WS, WP and WY then).

That Saturday evening, I brought WS and WY to the open area just outside the RC at B121 where the party was held. I cannot remember why WP had not joined in. The organisers had arranged for a clown to perform a 'magic show' and some acrobatic moves for the children who had to sit on the ground. The show went ok until some adults started to stand amongst their seated children, blocking the view of others including WS and WY who were seated at the back. Naturally, more people started to stand as well and before we knew it, we found ourselves sitting at the smelly feet of the people standing!

So we started to move away. (Super sian with these inconsiderate people.) Then the organisers told the children to start their walkabout around the area whilst holding their lanterns. Ha? But everywhere's brightly lit, so how fun was that?

After the 'walkabout', we collected some sponsored snacks from the organisers (amongst whom was Mrs Principal-Ong). I didn't like their attitude as they handed us the snacks - they were so kiasi that we would take more than our share! I had showed them our 3 tickets although only 2 boys were with me then. They examined and examined the tickets, turning the tickets upside down several times and flipped them to the front and then to the back to check, as if to confirm that they were genuine tickets they themselves had printed! Woah lao! Would I bother to make counterfeit ones just so that I could get another corn-dog from them?! Crazy women!

Side-tracked: That Mrs Principal-Ong is a Cheat. In a Baby Contest which WY participated in the MacPherson CC, she had been assigned to weigh the babies. When we went to her station, she took WY's weight (WY has always been a chubby one, mah) and exclaimed：“不可能！怎么可能？”when the scales showed that WY was then 9+kg. I was quite shocked at her reaction. Just what did she mean by '不可能？'?!

She insisted that there must have been some mistake, and it was impossible for WY to weigh this much! I got so fed-up with her when she she ran off to 'consult' some medical personnel at the next station before finally returning to scribble '7+ kg' on WY's chart! I marched off with WY who was, by then, getting edgy already, to join YP and WS at the general office.

Crazy 无知 woman - she reminds me some BPS teachers! Despicable Cheats!

Anyway, we have never tried to take part in any more of those RC parties ever since then. Instead, for about 2 Mid-Autumn Festivals, CP, YP and I together with R took all the 4 boys downstairs to walk around a little for whatever little 提灯笼 experience we can offer them in the vicnity. We inevitably ended up at the playground and in one year, we shared some spare lanterns with some Indian neighbours' children who were also at the playground. The neighbours were so thrilled at the unexpected gift that the parents also specially came forward to thank us when we met at the lift lobby the following day. That was, so far, the most 'enjoyable' 提灯笼 experience in our aging neighbourhood.

R and I also brought WY and WF to the Chinese Garden in Jurong to 提灯笼 and 'absorb the festive atmosphere' amongst the giant lanterns lighted up there. We have been there twice, and in 2005, CP joined us, too. That year, Mother went to the same venue with her friends on some organised tours, too. In the year when the theme was 古今中外的动物, BK and YP also brought WS and WP to the Chinese Garden. We met up briefly amongst some dinosaur lanterns, I remember.

It was quite interesting to be surrounded by the lighted giant lanterns and to walk amongst some bamboo trees (at some parts of the Garden). We took many photographs although only a handful turned out ok. R, CP and I agreed that the 'trick' to enjoying such outings (where we would all quite surely become hot and sweaty afterwards) is to get to the venue early (say, about 6pm) and then start our 提灯笼 walk early so that by the time we finish, it would be only about 9pm. The crowd usually gets thicker from 8pm onwards. So far, this early-start-early-end strategy has worked the best for us.

There is no plan for Chinese Garden this year. In fact, I don't think we will even 提灯笼 downstairs this year because Mid-Autumn Festival falls on a Tuesday. Also, WY's EL and CL Oral exams are scheduled to start on 八月十五 itself.... For the uninitiated, the EL and CL Oral exams mark the start of our year-end exam frenzy.....

At Mother's place, we had our mooncakes feast last Saturday. YP and I had bought many types of mooncakes this year. In fact, there were so many types that we forgot to cut the Teochew yam and the traditional 肉中秋 ones! And there was also a 6-inch 潮州腊饼 (sweet type) which my colleague had ordered from the AMK cake shop that made our Birds' Nest cake earlier this year. Eventually, we decided to save all these for another day because otherwise, we would have not been able to finish all!



Mother also prepared some baby yams for us to enjoy. The pomelo that YP had brought was also 'slaughtered' for everyone to eat. Mother always remembers that BK, especially, loves pomelo. So, the pomelo which I bought (still not 'slaughtered' yet) will be reserved for our Saturday dinner next week.



Yesterday, we had these mooncakes as post-dinner dessert. These were given by my colleague N who received them from some other people yesterday.

The pink and purple ones have agar-agar for skin and red bean paste and yam paste for filling, respectively. Very pretty to look at, but they taste only so-so.

This morning, I bought some beancurd with glutinous rice balls for some colleagues to reciprocate their regular kind gestures - they almost always get me small gifts such as magnets, keychains etc whenever they go travelling. They were so thrilled because the steaming hot beancurd-in-soyabean milk combination was just right to go along with their breakfast toasts. When some of them emailed me to thank me, I just replied: 今天是中秋节，也称团圆节。大家团团圆圆，多好啊！请你们吃汤圆，祝你们团圆节快乐！