Togetherness

Was browsing FB and i came to know that 2 days from now will be the Mooncake Festival again! How quickly time passed.

The celebrations of the Mooncake Festival has not been a norm in my family. I dont remember celebrating it in a large scale. Since this has not been celebrated as important as other festivals such as CNY or "Gor Dong", which is the 1st day after winter, Mooncake Festival has never occurred as a must-celebrate day. This year around, I will not be able to celebrate Mooncake Festival with my beloved ones in Malaysia. If any celebrations is about togetherness, then this will not happen in my family simply because my dad is in Beirut, my youngest brother is in Perth, while i am in Oran. Except of course for CNY which everyone will come back to Malaysia to celebrate it together. It is like an unsaid custom that everyone will tend to follow. It is the only time when everyone in my family is in KL, and the only time when we can really sit down as a family and have dinners, lunches or even a couple of Mahjong sessions.

 

So the last time when Mooncake Festival was still celebrated as an important day in my family was in my younger days, and when my grandmother was still alive. Though the memories are now vague but i do remember candles, lanterns, mooncake, some biscuit in piggy forms and a bull looking nuts that has to be cracked and of course a very sumptuous dinner prepared by my granny. My cousins and i took turns to light up the candles and some even to light up the paper made lanterns. And of course we will also have delicious mooncakes and nicely brewed chinese tea as desert. While us the kids played with lanterns and candles, the adults of course will just sit there and chit chat for the rest of the night.

That was the only memory i have for a family celebrations of Mooncake festival. After my granny passed away, we no longer celebrate the festival with my cousins. It was only within my family. It scaled down to just dinner and mookcakes. Not so much of candles and lanterns. And eventually as we grew older and went abroad to studies, we do not even eat dinner sometimes.

But then i still love Mooncake Festival a lot! I love all the varieties flavours and shapes available in the market. I especially love the "ping pei" ( the icy cold skinned mooncake) and loves those made by Nikko Hotel. They are a little pricey though. And the other thing i love is to cut mooncakes! So sometimes i tend to cut so many mooncakes but since my family do not fancy mooncake that much, they ended up rot in the fridge or i have to stuff myself to it for a couple of days straight.

  

Awww... that was fun. I still missed celebrating Mooncake Festival in Malaysia. Happy Mooncake Festival Everyone!