east wing mid autumn festival! :)

Writer: Ong Qing Liang
Photos: Deborah Wong, Gopal Kumar

On an uneventful Sunday night in hall, when on return from a 57-second long toilet break, I noticed that a door tag had been swiftly pasted during my brief period of absence:

the myserious doortag which appeared out of nowhere

Looking at the note, a strange sense of excitement overcame me. It felt as if I was being transported back to the era when the humble mooncake had its beginnings, the Yuan dynasty. Back then, China was under the rule of the Mongolians and rebel leaders, in a bid to devoid themselves of any suspicion, carefully distributed special cakes with secret notes embedded in them, spreading word of an impending rebellion. This time round though, the door tag given to me was not to signal a brewing upheaval in KE VII Hall, but rather, a friendly invitation to the East Wing Mid Autumn Festival. :)

And so on Wednesday night, the mundane BBQ area was magically transformed into a grand celestial palace. With colourful lanterns of various shapes and sizes hung all around and the quiet, peaceful moon beaming overhead, the atmosphere was perfect.

from this.....

 

to this!

Well, some say that in the past, Chang Er was recruited as a celebrity endorsement for an unnamed slimming center and in order to maintain her 10-inch waistline, she embarked on a strict no-fat, no-mooncake diet (thus earning her the nickname 常饿, or “often hungry” :)) Eventually though, Chang Er became so thin and malnourished that one day, gravity was unable to hold on to her bony frame anymore and she floated off to the nearest celestial body, where she now spends her days playing with the resident rabbit and watching the next door neighbour’s futile attempts at chopping down a tree.

the legend of chang er

Well, if the Chang Er in the story above was around during the East Wing MAF, she definitely would not be able to resist the sumptuous spread available for the night. ;) Besides the customary festival goodies such as mooncake and pomelo, there was a wide variety of other treats available for every hungry East Winger.

yummy mooncakes

 

more food!

The spirits of everyone were kept high throughout the night with many fun and creative games. The physical fitness of East Wingers was put to the test as they ran against each other in a light-the-sparkler relay (well, actually the physically demanding part was not the spinning and running, but rather trying to breathe under the dense, cough-inducing sparkler smoke) while their mental power was tested in the “lantern riddles” and “guess-the-song” segments. For some East Wing residents, it was their first time experiencing the Mid Autumn Festival. Vibol, from AB block, particularly liked the chewy texture of the mooncake and commented that it was literally ‘out of this world’ (pun intended).

racking their brains over the riddles

 

passing on the spark

 

can u guess the song?

 

ms chang er pageant?

 

we love east wing!

As the candles and sparklers started to die down, the celebrations came to an end. Satisfied East Wingers reluctantly left for their rooms knowing that while the flames of the lighted lanterns may have extinguished, the East Wing spirit continues to burn strong in each and every one of them! :D

e block mid autumn festival!

Writer: Riddhwaj Jalan (aka Rid)
Editor: Ong Qing Liang

Before you read on, I would like to introduce myself first. I am an Indian student who has just arrived in Singapore a few months ago. Prior to the E block Mid Autumn Festival, I had had absolutely no idea about the existence of the Mid Autumn Festival (MAF). In fact, my initial reaction to MAF was: “does Singapore even have autumn in the first place??” So, what you are going to read is not another description of a rather commonly understood festival, but rather, recollections of the MAF experience through the eyes of a stranger to the Singaporean culture. :)

Well, I first heard about the existence of mooncakes a month ago, from a friend who decided to torture me with thirty minutes of “Eldorado-flavoured” epic sagas of the fabled origins of mooncakes (which didn’t help explain much actually). All I remember is that he mentioned something about a lady floating off to the moon and somewhere in the story there is a rabbit too. :) And so began my quest to see for myself what this mystic shaman fragility called the “mooncake” actually was.

I had a rather ambiguous image in mind about “mooncakes”. Did it look more like the moon or did it look more like a cake? Did it glimmer? Did it have a lot of craters on its surface? As such, I keenly looked forward to the E block MAF, where I would be able to lay my eyes on this legendary delicacy.

So on the night of 5th October, E blockers came together to celebrate MAF. Actually, I felt that the supper was more of an excuse for all the E-blockers to get together and repair the damage that the mid-terms had had on us. :P As always, the supper did not fail to be entertaining. There was a lot of good interaction, exciting games, delicious cuisine and endless peals of laughter. In line with the celestial theme, it was also the night where we had our ‘angel-mortal’ revelations.

mad rush for the mooncakes!

story telling session

I was particularly impressed by the lanterns which were put up everywhere. Somehow, they gave the event an ancient, traditional and an extraordinarily homely touch (there is one hanging on my door now). The vast variety and the difference in tastes of the moon cakes was also a kind of charm of its own; though to be honest I was hoping for a more “moonly” look (this did not stop me from popping mooncake after mooncake into my mouth though). :p

if only we had these!

sparklers!

more sparklers!

Overall I think that MAF is one of the many delights that Singapore has to offer and I am glad to have been a part of this fine tradition. I look forward to uncovering many more hidden facets of the Singaporean culture in the future! :D