More Mid-Autumn Festival Festivities

One of the reasons we came to Singapore is to gain first-hand experience with traditions originating on this side of the world. And what better way to understand a festival, than to take part? So that's what we did for the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival (aka Lantern Festival, aka Moon Festival, aka Mooncake festival).

We ate mooncakes given to us by friends. We've noticed that mooncakes (especially the cooked kind) are kind of like fruitcake. They're both dense and kinda sweet, and some people like them, but many others give and receive them for the sake of tradition. Either way, they are very popular, are sold everywhere in this season, and come in a large variety of colors and flavors.

We ogled the fantastic lanterns at Gardens by the Bay and in Chinatown.

Then we made our own mooncakes and lanterns at the Chinatown family-festival - where we attracted a lot of attention for our obvious lack of Chinese ancestry.

We joined a large lantern-carrying parade through Chinatown, where Michael got to tell our kids "if you find yourself on the interesting side of the crowd barriers, keep doing what you're doing."

And then on the night of the full moon, we played with sparklers generously shared by our condo neighbors, who had clearly celebrated this festival before.

Happy Autumn everyone! Wishing us a long life to share the graceful moonlight, though we be thousands of miles apart.