中秋节快乐！圆圆满满、幸福平安。
Translated it means best wishes this Mid-Autumn Festival (MAF) with peace and prosperity, harmony and happiness. Being one of the more popular festivals for Singaporean Chinese with customary exchange of mooncakes for well-wishing, and lantern-making or -holding for children of all ages, it is a month-long build-up to the actual day of the 15th of the eight month in the lunar calendar.
Tonight has been an interesting night, though it was a simple "celebration" by normal standards (no kids running about showing off their colourful lanterns, or making a trip to the Gardens By The Bay [click here for more], or even expensive mooncake-tasting high-tea). Simply put, I stayed home to appreciate the moon in its glory and sipped Chinese tea, with the ones I love next to me. It was by far the simplest Lantern Festival I've had to date in my twenty-odd years of living.
Most times, it is not what you do or how much you spend on an occasion, but who you spend it with. I've figured by now that making the most out of each day spent with family and friends, even doing mundane chores, can make a big difference. So, cherish simplicity whenever you can!
Anecdote of the evening:
I left the supermarket with my favourite childhood snack which is typically only sold during the Mooncake Festival period every year. Unfortunately for me, as muddle-headed as I am, I only realised when I was halfway through my 15-minute walk home that it was dangling on my left hand, together with my keys... UNPAID FOR. I'd had a bunch of items that were passed to the cashier and conveniently assumed that was all I bought. As the elderly waiting for dinner were not ones to be patient for food, I rushed home to satisfy their hunger with the snack still strung precariously in the crook of my left thumb and index finger. Note to self: Return first thing tomorrow morning to pay the 50-cents for the little pig snack.
"You ask me how deeply I love you and just how great my love is. My affection does not waver, my love does not change. The moon represents my heart." - Teresa Teng, Taiwanese singer and actress