Memories of Mooncake Festival

Coming back from Gelang Patah prayer meeting ... I saw many groups of young people and children carrying their lantern walking around the housing estate ... and as I drove into the street I live ... my neighbor lighted a row of lanterns and hang them over a poll the place between the gate and fence.

Here in Taman U ... one can really feel this festival .... the festive mood is in the air ... kids are outside their house at almost every Chinese house ... it has been a long time since I see groups and groups of young people and kids carrying their lanterns ... :0

When I was young, I remember the celebration of Mooncake festival .... perhaps I was about 6 or 7 years old ... we were living in Sitiawan Estate and we used to hang out with my second cousins who lived in the mid way along the road that lead to Sitiawan Estate.

So, that evening we went to their house .... they made lanterns from Milo and Nestum empty tins because our parents will not buy us lanterns that is made of colorful plastic papers. So, we need to make our own lanterns if we want to play with them. All you need to do is to cut the bottom of the tin, then cut stripes on the walls of the tins, lastly you press the tin downwards that made the tins roundish in shape. Then at add a wire to hold the candle at the bottom. Actually, this is the best lantern because you will not set them on fire .... :0

With these homemade lanterns, we will carry then along the road ... to the house that is a home keropok factory ... while we carry the lantern ... we shout .... "niang-teng ah" "niang-teng ah" ... literal translation from Foo Chow -- lantern display ... lantern display ....

Simple fun we had as kids .... :-0...

Off course, not too long later, we had paper lanterns which is cheaper than the colorful plastic paper lanterns ... and the Milo/Nestum tin lantern slowly fade away .... what is left is just memories of it ....

In Foo Chow tradition, we do not only have mooncakes during this festival ... we also have 2 other type of delicacy ... one is small square biscuit ... made from flour and lard ... and another .... small hard sugar coated biscuit .. which is called "lor-chu-piang" -- literal translation from FooChow ... rat's tail .... actually when I was in Fu Zhou 2 years ago, they sell these type of biscuit all year round in the supermarkets. Guess, in Sitiawan, we can only get it during MoonCake Festival ...


This is my memory of Moon cake festival - what is yours?