Monday, October 5, 2009

mid-autumn festival


Saturday, October 3rd, was the Mid-Autumn Festival or the Chinese Moon Festival here in Hong Kong. This is a festival that takes place when the moon is the biggest and brightest it can be. This festival seems to consist of eating lots of “moon cakes” and displaying beautiful handheld lanterns.

We decided to go to Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to celebrate this festival. I think it was a good choice as there were so many people there. When we arrived at the MTR station, all we had to do was follow the tide of people heading to the park. There were lovely lanterns hung all over, making it all very picturesque. There were several stages with various shows going on all evening. There was a stage for ethnic Chinese dancing, a stage for traditional Chinese opera, a stage for an acrobatic show, and two stages for two different types of puppet plays (one with the live figurines and the other with the puppets performing behind a sheet). There were also several booths all around with games, Chinese riddles, and even fortunetellers.

I loved seeing all the adults and children milling about with their lanterns in hand. There were traditional paper lanterns as well as many new, modern plastic lanterns. There were many who wore glow-in-the-dark necklaces and bracelets and became walking pieces of art. People were eating cotton candy and popcorn while enjoying the carnival atmosphere. Families were even having picnics while enjoying the cool air and the bright moon. It was truly a wonderful evening!

Cool dragon display!

One of the finger puppet shows.

The second puppet show. I really liked this one as the colors were so vibrant!

These red lanterns were hanging everywhere. Beautiful!

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