It was Mooncake Festival on Tuesday night.


As a child I looked forward to it cos my mum would bake her mooncakes in the kitchen, and we would help to knead the flour (it was like playdoh, but more aromatic :9). Mum would make little piggies for our itchy mouths and I got used to hearing the "kok! kok! kok!" sound of her hitting the heavy wooden moulds on Yellow Pages to get the mooncakes out. Part of me delighted in thinking how it was irritating the neighbours downstairs hee hee. But the best part was the smell wafting out of the oven when the mooncakes were ready.

Then mum's oven blew a fuse and she didn't feel it was worth it to re-invest in another one. So we switched to the snow-skin types, then slowly, none at all. Mum said it wasn't worth the physical labour.


As a child I was always eager to join the school or estate's lantern 'parade' around the neighbourhood with the other kids. Such group activities felt good (need for a sense of belonging?) and I would illogically feel 'haolian' while strutting around, even if my lantern was the same as some others'.

Then I grew up. Store-bought mooncakes are cookie-cut and do not have the same feel. People stare if I join the lantern procession. My younger sis is overseas; my elder sis and I have gotten married and moved out. The 团圆 significance in the festival seems weak now.


I still tried to get in on the mood. I went to buy a piggy (in the pink basket of course) to eat, and got ripped off by a China vendor for a cellophane lantern (my favourite type), candles not included. But didn't manage to see the black 'horn' root 菱角 with the crunky white insides (you know, where you use one horn to dig the meat out from the other). I even plotted joining the lantern parade if there happened to be one downstairs on Tuesday night, or maybe pop in to my parents' place to continue our mooncake-bingeing tradition.

But what happened on Tuesday night? I was so upset by my work life that I indulged in a char kuay teow dinner and went to bed at 9pm, forgetting to even look at the moon in the sky.

Endnote:
I remember being sent in primary school as a representative to a inter-school 诗歌朗诵 competition. That's where children fake a high-pitched cheena voice and try to speak lyrically with old-fashioned gestures. I still remember parts of my solo poem...

满天星 亮晶晶 对着我们眨眼睛
我们围成一个圈 一人就是一颗星

Then there were verses on 太阳公公 and 月亮姐姐 that I've forgotten (老师 I've failed you!) Guess I remember that first stanza because it's a good self-esteem booster. Or maybe cos I practiced that the most!

Labels: Nostalgic Nut