Wednesday 22 September 2010

Mid Autumn Festival


I've received two separate cards which mark the Mid Autumn Festival.  The more recent is the one above from Singapore.  The sender tells me the festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th Chinese lunar month.  On this day, one of the most important festivals for Chinese people, people give thanks for protection, family unity and good fortune.  Moon cakes are eaten, symbolic of family unity, and one of the many varieties is pictured here on the reverse of the card.


The second card came from Macau last spring, almost enough time for me to put it to one side - and then forget.  In fact I have to thank a good friend who said, out of the blue, "My calendar says today is 'moon festival'. I wonder what that means?".  And it all came back to me.  I rummaged around and found the earlier card.


It explains on the reverse:
Mid Autumn Festival: 15th day of the 8th lunar month is Mid Autumn Festival.  The Chinese believe that day the moon is the biggest, roundest and brightest.  They eat moon-cakes and children play lanterns under the light of full moon.  The most traditional lantern is the white rabbit lantern.
So that is the Mid Autumn Festival in a nutshell.  A happy Mid Autumn Festival to all!
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3 comments:

  1. Great postcards. I wish we celebrated that festival here.

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  2. This is sort of what Italians believe to be the night of the Blue Moon. The moon has a blue ring around it and something in the air causes people to act out of sorts so to speak.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Postcardy, it seems like a great time.

    @Ancient Digger, I haven't heard of that night in Italy.

    ReplyDelete

Welcome to my postcard collection! I love hearing what you think of the cards - but spam WILL be deleted.

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