We often shake our heads in disbelief when we see shops
selling Christmas decorations in September, and Easter eggs and hot cross buns
in December. It’s the same with Chinese festivals because
moon cakes were
available at the end of July (which was celebrated on 30 September).
We’re devoured two boxes of moon cakes this year
~
pandan and black sesame seed/lotus seed flavour which was very tasty!
When I was three years old, I stayed with my maternal grandmother
while my parents holidayed in Europe. I remember crying every morning because I
missed my parents and I think my grandmother was at a loss
at finding ways to entertain me. I remember
her taking me to a movie about a Tarzan like man who could shape shift into a
crocodile (probably not the most age appropriate film) and buying boiled
chickpeas from street vendors (I
still like eating plain boiled chickpeas). The
memory that stands out is a blue horse lantern my grandmother bought me for the
Moon Festival. It was made from wire that was shaped into a horse, with blue cellophane
stretched onto the frame. I was really excited about the lantern and
looked forward to taking it outside in the evening so I could light the candle
inside the lantern. Because of the breeze, the lantern caught on fire and half
of it was burnt! I remember being really upset that the blue
horse was burnt, and I only played with it for a few hours.
To celebrate the Moon Festival, I hand stitched this moon cake from
felt from Joie Staff's
My Favorite Sweets book. I think I over stuffed it as I get a bit zealous with polyester
fibre! Now I can think about eating moon cakes all year round (and lament the loss of the blue horse lantern)!
