The Mid Autumn Festival at Hua Song Museum

Many thanks to the National Heritage Board, I was one of the folks who were invited to the private party, By the Light of the Lanterns, held on 2 Oct 2009 at the Hua Song Museum.

Hua Song, means "in praise of the Chinese". The museum which is located in the new wing of Haw Par Villa, "offers visitors the chance to appreciate the spirit of adventure and enterprise of the early Chinese migrants around the world, who made countless sacrifices, seized opportunities amidst adversity, showed great fortitude and industry to make good in their adopted land." (source: http://www.huasong.org/about_huasong.htm)

Participants of the party, By the Light of the Lanterns, could challenge their mind by attempting to solve the Chinese lantern riddles found on strips of paper that were hung from selected lanterns. Admittedly, I have found the riddles to be very challenging. Participants will find the riddles easier to solve if they were to have very strong knowledge of the Chinese culture and Chinese idioms. I managed to solve two of the riddles only and won myself two prizes.

Mooncakes seem to be the must-have for any Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations. At the party, one could find various types of mooncakes, from snow-skin to the traditional ones. There was even a demonstration of how to make snow-skin mooncakes.

The party also gave participants a chance to know a little more about the art of Chinese calligraphy. Participants could enjoy watching a Chinese calligraphy master demonstrating the art of Chinese calligraphy.



For the participants who want to get their hands a creative work-out, they could make their own lanterns using the colourful papers that were provided at the event. I wonder why people in Singapore associate lanterns with Mid-Autumn Festival. Anyone could please enlighten?

There was a special guided tour of the Hua Song Museum. I gave it a miss for I was feeling in need of some early rest after a demanding week. For the readers who have never visited Hua Song Museum and wanted to catch a few glimpses of the museum, do check out a post that I had written quite a long while ago: In praise of the Chinese.

In the meantime, have a joyful Mid Autumn Festival.

(Also see Seeing the Light (of the Lanterns) by peacefrog)