"Moon" Festival 2008 in Chinatown - Singpore

We sat around half of the day yesterday, watching the battering of Hurricane Ike on the Texas/Louisiana coast. We were worrying about our family, Carey and Mike, and all our friends that live in the area. Steve is based out of Sugarland and knows many people there too. The more we watched the less we wanted to see, but for whatever reason, it is like you can't watch but are glued to the tv because you can't leave.

Finally we turned it off and went to Chinatown - to the Moon Festival - where we had originally planned to spend the day - the 14th is the last day of the celebration. The date of Mid-autumn Festival also known as Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th moon day of 8th Chinese lunar month (Chicken month).

Since the new moon day is the first day of a Chinese Lunar Month. The first day of 8th lunar month in the year 2008 is 31st August 2008, the Moon Festival is on 14 September 2008.

This is a day the Chinese worship the moon god. According to folk legend, this day is also the birthday of the earth god (T'u-ti Kung). This festival signals that the year's hard work in the fields will soon come to an end, with only the harvest left to attend to. People use this opportunity to express their gratitude to heaven (represented by the moon) and earth (symbolized by the earth god) for the blessings they have enjoyed over the past year and to spend time with their families.

The Chinese believe in praying to the moon god for protection, family unity, and good fortune. The round "moon cakes" eaten on this festival are symbolic of family unity and closeness - and they come in every flavor imaginable. They are small cakes (about 3" and up) with a 'moonface' on them.

Pomelos (HUGE grapefruits) are also eaten on this day. The Chinese word for "pomelo" or "grapefruit" is yu, which is homophonous with the word for "protection," yu, expressing the hope that the moon god give them protection. Moon gazing is another essential part of this festival.

On this day, the moon is at its roundest and brightest. This is also a time for lovers to tryst and pray for togetherness, symbolized by the roundness of the moon. There are many weddings during the month of August as it is a month of love and unity.

Unlike most other Chinese festivals, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a low-key holiday, supposedly characterized by peace and elegance.

But regardless of what they say it was busy:

but stepping out of the taxi, we could see the decoations would be wonderful:

We admired the crafters - again, who truly have a talent - and LOTS of patience. This girl was etching glass with the punch - all of the pictures sitting around her are etched:

It was obvious she sat for hours doing this. These stools are quite common here.

We shopped:

And remembering Jeremy said everyone needs to wear red to the wedding, I found a nice stash of ties for Steve to select from to wear to the wedding - sorry son, he was having none of that...

The bbq pits (wooden cylinders) with the billowing smoke smelled wonderful.

However, we chose to wait as we had decided to eat at Boat Quay (pronounced key - like you use in a door). As night drew near, we saw why the crowd was there - the lights started lighting and it turned absolutely beautiful all around us:

We were looking around in amazement when we were pleasantly surprised by Larry walking up! Pam and Larry had also decided to go to the festival. We visited a bit and I remembered to ask Larry (thanks Larry) to take a picture of us:

Finally, your wish is granted, son - a picture of me ;-) with dad - imagine that!

Were we ever surprised when a parade started right near where we were standing. I don't know if it is actually a dragon parade, but it sure did have a lot of dragons!

Even the truck was decorated like a dragon:

Mardi Gras and crowds... we are used to them. China town is also very crowded. It compares to the smaller parade (like Houma) crowds, not the New Orleans parades - but it was still very crowded:

Finally again, we get to the traffic:

We were walking over a foot bridge and I got these pictures. See how they are in nice, neat little lines? They are gridlocked. Since they were not moving, I was amazed to see them actually stopped - in lines.

If you will look back at the pictures of the streets, you will see typical Singapore fashion traffic. I keep bringing you back to that because nothing I can say or do explains it. U.S.A. is generally safe to drive in, but I see a lot of accidents there. I don't see as many accidents here as I do in the U.S., but it is because everyone is aware everyone else drives like they do - CRAZY!

More on Boat Quay later... lol...