Art can, and will, heal the world
Mid-Autumn Festival Collaboration
Art:Connect is excited to announce our "Mid-Autumn Festival Collaboration"! We collaborated with primary schools, whose students decorated cards (both Art:Connect templates and originals) which we then distributed to the residents of SNM (Singapore), Orange Valley Nursing Home, Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH) and Lions Home for the Elders.
Some of our primary school collaborators include Opera Estate Primary School, Valour Primary School, Rivervale Primary School, Woodlands Ring Primary and Haig Girls' Primary School.
Let's learn more about the significance of the Mid Autumn Festival through the student's artworks!
Mid- Autumn Festival, also known as the Mooncake Festival, traditionally falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. In 2021, it falls on September 21st. It is celebrated to worship the moon and to celebrate the harvest.
Mid-Autumn Festival is similar to Thanksgiving; it is a day where families reunite and a day where we show our appreciation to our loved ones. It is celebrated in most Asian countries by bonding over a hearty dinner, brewed hot tea and mooncakes. Families will light up their paper lanterns and admire the full moon.
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To the Chinese, the roundness of the moon is said to represent the reunion of family. Families celebrate this reunion by eating dinner together.
A must-eat food during Mid-Autumn Festival is mooncakes. Families will usually gather around to cut the round mooncake into pieces and share them amongst themselves. Mooncakes come in many flavours and sizes. The more traditional types of mooncakes are red bean, white lotus, salted egg yolk and green tea mooncake. The more contemporary types of mooncakes include snow skin, ice cream and even durian mooncakes.
While appreciating the moon, the many versions of the folklore of Chang'e and Hou Yi will be shared from parents to children. Rumor has it that you can see the Jade Rabbit and Chang'e's shadow in the Moon!
One of the many versions of the legend is...
Back when the earth was still young, there were 10 suns in the sky. It was hard for humans to survive under the sweltering heat. Hou Yi, a skilled archer, shot 9 suns down and was rewarded an elixir of immortality for his heroic deed. One day, a villain broke into their home and demanded Hou Yi's wife, Chang'e, to hand over the elixir. Out of desperation, Chang'e swallowed the elixir and floated into the sky, towards the moon. Hou Yi missed his wife dearly and so on the day of the full moon he Chang'e favorite food on the table. This custom was later followed by folk people praying to the Goddess Chang'e for good luck.
The story of the Jade Rabbit goes like this...
One day, 3 immortals reincarnated themselves into 3 poor old people and asked a fox, a rabbit and a monkey for food. The fox and the monkey had food to offer however, the rabbit did not have any. The rabbit then offered itself to the immortals by jumping into the fire. The immortals were moved by the rabbit and sent the rabbit to the moon to become an immortal jade rabbit. Ever since then, the jade rabbit stays in the Moon Palace to accompany Chang'e and compounds immortal medicine for those living in the heaven.
The activity that children look forward to most is the lighting up of paper lanterns. Children will light up their lanterns and walk around the park with their family, after that, they would hang the lanterns in trees or houses. Some people will write well wishes on sky lanterns and release them to the sky, if not, they will write their prayers on the lanterns that float on rivers, hoping that their prayers will be answered.