The Moon and the Mid-Autumn Festival

Mooncakes which you can buy all over the world on the Internet are made to celebrate the full moon at the mid-autumn festival. The date varies because it uses the lunar calendar.

It all sounds very abstract until you walk home at night in Singapore and see the moon shining overhead, as it has done for centuries.

At a Toastmasters International speakers club a member said that he felt it linked him to his relatives all over the world. As a child he thought everybody looked up at the same moon.

Somebody said that it depends which part of the world you are in. Now we have the internet we can all look at the same moon and celebrate snowy Christmas on a Christmas card online even if we are in Australia where the seasons are reversed. We can link to people in other parts of the world and traditions linking us to memories of our childhood and our grandparents and ancestors long ago.

The mooncakes which were once only eaten by the Chinese with friends and family are now available to every tourist and friend and business to share with colleagues and friends.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.