Mid-Autumn Festival

This year, Mid-Autumn Festival fell on September 25.

My mother who was a Buddhist up until about six years before her death, used to celebrate all Chinese festivals, minor or major. Since the rest of the family are Catholics we celebrated these festivals not with prayers to the Chinese Gods but with a gathering of all the family members having dinner together. We would have a small feast of fish, mixed vegetables, lotus root soup and the traditional steamed chicken. Of course, on Mid-Autumn day, we would have mooncake for desert, washed down with Chinese tea.

Since my mother's passing, my family now only celebrate major festivals like Chinese New Year and Winter Solstice which are cultural events rather than religious ones. My father's more incline towards western food and so missing a Chinese feast or two is no big deal to him. My mother was the one who planted my Chinese roots deep into the ground.

Well, to make up for the feast we did not have, we did eat many mooncakes before and on Mid-Autumn day.


Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival (wiki)

mooncakes

mooncakes