每逢佳节倍思亲

可不是每逢佳节被撕清！

It's only this morning when I see my mum making offerings to my ancestors that I realize today is 中秋节。

When I was young, I like mid autumn festival because my grandma would bring me to the market to buy lanterns. =O) I still have 1 or 2 of my battery-powered lanterns in my cupboard. The battery-powered lanterns during my time didn't have any music... It was only when I was in secondary school that they have lanterns with music. But those lanterns are usually of animals/cartoons etc.. and the music the lanterns have is exactly like those music you hear from the 20-cent kiddy rides.

I like the traditional 姑娘lanterns. Those with 5 or 6 foots and pictures of Han-dynasty 姑娘with fans. Sadly, those are the lanterns without music/with the wrong music accompaniment. I've also been actively looking for Doraemon lantern with Doraemon music but after so many years, I still can't find one.

Anyway, I was just looking on the internet for other customs of 中秋节 besides 赏月and 吃月饼。Apparently, in Qing-dynasty, there was this saying "男不拜月" so the guys have quite little activities to do on mid autumn festival.

As for the girls, "activities" include:
1) sleeping late on the night of mid autumm festival - meant to pray for mothers' longevity
2) steal vegetable / onions from neighbours - this is for females who are unmarried to pray for a good husband / marriage
3) steal melons from neighbours - meant to pray for fertiliy in the coming year

Besides 嫦娥奔月, there is another story that's relevant to mid autumn festival. In the 13th century or so, the Mongolians started the Yuan dynasty and they killed many Hans after they conquered part of Song. In order to remind the Han decendents of the Mongolian's cruelty, the Hans use yam in their offerings to ancentors. Why yam? keke... It is said that yam, in chinese is 芋头 and Mongolians, in chinese is “胡头”, since the pronounciations are alike in chinese and the shape of yam is similar to that of a human head, so decendents use yam to 祭奠祖先.

I miss celebrating mid autumn festival and listening to 老师 talk about mid autumn festival's stories.