Saturday, October 3, 2009

Chinese Apostolate Celebrates Mid Autumn (Lantern/ Mooncake) Festival

The Visitation Chinese Apostolate organised a celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival this evening, October 3 in the Visitation Hall. The celebrations started with a time of prayer, praise and worship. This was followed by an event for the children, lantern competition. A sumptuous dinner with the festive delicacy mooncake was served at the end of the event.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, or in Chinese, Zhongqiu Jie (traditional Chinese: 中秋節), is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese people, Japanese people (Tsukimi festival in Japanese), Koreans (Chuseok festival in Korean), and Vietnamese people (even though they celebrate it differently), dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty. It was first called Zhongqiu Jie (literally "Mid-Autumn Festival") in the Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which coincides with October 4 this year. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomelos together. Today, the festival is celebrated by Chinese of different faiths as a cultural celebration, rather than a religious one.

祝大家中秋節快樂!

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