All About Your Child

Mid Autumn Festival 2010 is especially special for my boys, especially Binbin. I would rather put it this way, Mid Autumn Festival is for kids in my family and my in-law’s too. The kids will receive a Hong Bao (red packet) from their grandmother as a form of Mid Autumn Festival greeting every year.

This Mid Autumn Festival tradition was passed down by her parents or grandparents. The money in the Hong Bao is given to the kids to buy lanterns. But my boys are very lucky to be born into this family because they still get the Hong Bao even though they have already received free lanterns from the old folk in the family. *smile*

Of course, the Mid Autumn Festival Origin is so much more famous than this little Hong Bao giving, which my in-law practices. I heard that Mid Autumn Festival in Hong Kong has this practice too. Do the old folks in your house do that too?

Mid Autumn Festival 2010 happens to fall on a Wednesday, so the kids had their lantern-parade on Sunday. It was a pity that my eldest niece could not join in the fun, my 2nd BIL had a wedding dinner to attend to that night.

This year, Binbin fell in love with a special type of mooncakes from Bakerzin. Yup. Bakerzin! This little boy definitely has an expensive ‘tongue’! Its called “The Black Sesame Truffle mini snow skin Mooncakes”. He does not like the Da Tong Mooncake which we bought.

Bakerzin was having a Mid Autumn Festival bazaar at IMM. We were going around tasting all the samples last week, so much so that our taste buds no longer can tell which is nice and which is not. *eyes rolled*

So we arrowed Binbin to take over the tasting of the Bakerzin mooncakes. He pointed at the black sesame mooncakes the moment he saw it, thinking that it was Chocolate Mooncakes!!! *laugh*

Surprisingly, he loved it so much! I asked for the price of one box, Ooooohhhh… it was pricey. So in the end I bought only a single piece, which cost $7.00+, for him.

Today he is in luck, ‘cos my sister’s boyfriend bought a whole box of Bakerzin mini mooncakes for us. Though it is a mixture of different sorts of flavours, but there are 2 pieces of black sesame mooncakes, enough to satisfy the cravings of Binbin. *giggle*

So here’s wishing everyone a wonderful Mid Autumn Festival 2010!

Mid Autumn Festival is the time when the kids are given 100% approval to ‘play’ with fire. Before the Mid Autumn Festival, its the Hungry Ghost Festival, a time when the Buddhist and the Taoist burn lots of incense papers to their ancestors, loved ones who had passed away and the wandering ghosts. So the kids over at my in-law’s house would get a chance to get near that fiery bin and start throwing the ‘ghost money’ into the flame.

Right after that big flame, comes the small candle light. Mid Autumn Festival is the time when they hold lanterns and parade around the neighbourhood under the full moon. Mid Autumn Festival is also like a ‘fire’ day, whereby they lay the candles in a row and start lighting them up one by one.

Mid Autumn Festival is well known for its fine weather, clear skies and a big round full moon. Which is also probably why the delicacy for the Mid Autumn Festival is the moon cake.

Mid Autumn Festival always falls on September, which is also my favourite month of the year! ‘cos its a month for me to receive presents and a month of feasting.

This year’s Mid Autumn Festival falls on 22nd September (it changes every year ‘cos its based on the Lunar Calendar).

As for the kids, Mid Autumn Festival month is a month of touring round Chinatown looking at the latest lantern designs and enjoying the beautiful decorations and lighting.

Mid Autumn Festival for my boys are very different from mine when I was a child. My kids have free lanterns from my MIL every single year on Mid Autumn Festival. It seems like its a tradition in the family that the grandma would buy a new lantern for her grandchildren. I remember Allan was telling me that his grandmother bought Dragon Shaped Lanterns for his brother and him every single year on Mid Autumn Festival! He got so sick of it. *laugh*

So I must say that my boys are very fortunate to be part of Allan’s family. For me, as a kid, I remember playing with candles and burning matchboxes, more than holding a wooden stick attached to a paper lantern and walking around aimlessly on Mid Autumn Festival. Very different childhood from my boys indeed.

I am not expecting much changes for them this year as Allan’s family is not one that moves away from tradition, especially on Mid Autumn Festival.