On the 15th of August of the lunar calendar they celebrated the Mid-autumn Festival. The best way to explain it is a cross between our Halloween and Thanksgiving. It really is a holiday for children and a time to remember your ancestors. During the 2 days around the full moon, children practice the art of lion dancing in the streets. Much like dressing up in Halloween costumes and going door to door for treats; the children perform dances for the homes in their neighbourhood in exchange for some money. The children (most often boys from age 6-16) wear a two person lion costume. One boy is the head of the lion and one is the back half.
They are accompanied by a 'happy buddha' and drummers to create the beat for the dancers. The happy buddha fans the home owner while the lion is performing a dance.
When the they conduct the lion dance throughout your house they are said to be chasing the bad luck away for the rest of the year. The whole thing lasts about 5 to 10 minutes then you give them some change and they are off. Usually a crowd of spectators from the neighbourhood follow them from house to house. This all happened very quickly and I apologize for the poor photos but you get the idea.
Also, large stores, restaurants, or hotels will hire professional lion dancers to perform for their clients. I just happened to be at the supermarket at the right time to witness a spectacular dance. The streets were packed shoulder to shoulder.
For the full 2 days surrounding the full moon, there was an incredible energy in the streets. Everywhere you could hear the sounds of drums beating, people cheering for the lion dancers, and the youngest children running around in lion customes.
In the past, children would also be given small paper toys but within the last few years these small plastic toys from China have gained popularity.
This is also a time when families remember their ancestors and they burn incense, fake money and throw candy our on the streets for their ancestors to enjoy.
They place some fresh fruit, fake money, and/or flowers on the family alter. The tradition of placing food and gifts on the family ancestral alter is practiced at the full moon of every month, but for the Mid-Autumn Festival they will give some special seasonal fruit and maybe some extra gifts for their ancestors.
Families will enjoy and share mooncake. Gotta admit it isn't the most delicious of desserts but more of a traditional custom. Many families enjoy it in small portions with tea. I believe even the Vietnamese would admit that it is not eaten for its tasty attributes but more for the tradition. Kind of like when we hand out fruit cake at Christmas or grooms cake during a wedding. These cakes do take a lot of preparation and are quite expensive. Most families buy the cakes and give them as gifts to friends, family neighbours, or colleagues. The cakes are made of a heavy dense pastry (either from rice or flour) and the centres usually have a whole egg, durian fruit, coconut, or mung beans. These cakes can be purchased in many sizes and they are about $5-$10 for a small one of about 6 inches diameter.
Besides that I have been busy at work getting ready for our first training session for the coop leaders. Next few posts will be about some of the places I have been able to visit over the past few months and a report on how the training sessions turned out!!
