mooncake memories

my earliest memory of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) was curiously not when i was a youngling (which i suspect was spent either blissfully toting my paper-with-candlelit-lantern or of a plastic-with-battery-op-lantern), but of my first year in Interior Design school (near 2 decades ago ;p), when students stayed back after regular school hours (on the pretext of "studying" *snicker*) and had gathered on the rooftop for simple potluck of 'cheap' mooncakes, old-skool accordian-styled paper lanterns and party sparklers, and generally having a grand old time, while the following morning was spent in a daze in class (*doubler-snicker*) ... (of coz back then, i had my Chang'e with me ... *blush*)

... since then, i doubt if i've ever held a lantern nor celebrated in such a memorable way ... these days the festival is marked with the commercial manifestation of carnival-styled festivities and large public craftwork of lanterns dotting the little island of Singapore ... and on the home-front, the festival is heralded with the inclusion and eating of mooncakes, days before the actual date itself .. the tradition and meaning of it all, lost amidst the tasty bites of mooncakes (double salted-yoke please, thanks), sat before the telly ... *heh*

meanwhile, here's wishing one and all a very Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, and hoping somewhere, some folks will be up on a rooftop tonight, if not to celebrate the tradition, but to have a grand old time with friends and/or family :)

WHAT IS THE MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL?

"The Mid-Autumn Festival (Simplified Chinese: 中秋节; Traditional Chinese: 中秋節; pinyin: zhōngqiūjié), also known as the Moon Festival, is a popular Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival, similar in name to a different festival which falls on the fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year).
The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries."

WHO IS CHANG'E?

"While Westerners may talk about the "man in the moon", the Chinese talk about the "woman in the moon". The story of Chang'e and her flight to the moon, is familiar to every Chinese citizen, and a favourite subject of poets. Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures who personify the moon, Chang'e lives in the moon" [wiki]