Mid-Autumn Festival 2022
Lantern? Mooncake? Mid-Autumn? Yes, you are right! A great and fun festival that is happening on 10 September this year. Which also falls on the 15th day of the 8th Lunar month. One of the most popular festivals observed and celebrated by many Asian countries like Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. Literally Chinese will be celebrating this joyous reunion with family and friends.
Origins of Mooncake Festival
You may be wondering? What’s the Origin?!?
Variations of this mythology has been circulated in the folk saying. This festival is associated with the Chinese Moon Goddess named Chang’e who ascended to the moon. The tale has this saying where the goddess’s husband- Hou Yi was apotheosized after he shot down nine of ten suns, with the intention to save the people from the Earth to avoid the suffering from the immense heat.
When he became the King, he asked for an elixir for immortality. However, the pill was stolen by Chang’e, ate it with the intention to save the people. After consuming, she became the Chinese Moon Goddess and this occasion is to specially commemorate her for her bravery act.
The Celebrations
Singapore
With the easing of COVID measures this year, I believed everyone is full of excitement on the line up of events, including the street lantern light-up and ceremony at Chinatown, live performances and also workshops and activities for the SINGAPOREANS.
Gardens by the Bay is definitely a splendid venue for your consideration where they hold live outdoor performance, interesting marketplace, exquisite display of lantern lighting in different themes and that’s more – lanterns giveaway.
One of the lanterns displays that will attract the Korean culture fan’s attention will be the featuring of traditional paper from Seoul, showcasing animal friends and family playing Korean traditional games – the Colours of daily life. Other themes also include ‘Colourful Blossoms, Joyous Reunion, Five Blessings, Colonnade of Lights & Flower Lanterns’.
Showcase the yearly affair of mooncakes in pretty packaging
The Must – Have delicacy that can never be missed will be the mooncakes. With exquisite arrays of choice from traditional to modern kinds in various brands and packaging. Most of the people will gather together to enjoy the mooncakes, alongside with hot brewed tea to lighten the sweetness touch.
Let’s explore the various brands from SINGAPORE to TAIWAN. Let’s Hung provides you with the distinctive
Marina Bay Sands [MBS]– you will definitely be amazed by how the mooncake box appeared with 3D carve of the iconic building with LED Light up, there’s also QR code to scan for an augmented reality (AR) element that make you go ‘Wow!’.
It comes with Premium Edition and Luxury Edition which includes the most classic series with 4 pieces of White Lotus Double Yolk mooncakes or modern series with 4 different flavours- [ Bird’s Nest with Red Date, Truffle Bak Kwa Red Lotus, XO Dried Scallop Wu Liang Ye and Jinhua Ham White Lotus].
Mdm Ling Bakery– For those board game lovers, you will love this as it is designed into a whimsical tin box- Monopoly, Snake and Ladder and International and Chinese Chess game board, yes, it’s literally the game board set that you can play on. You can imagine that when you are enjoying the mooncakes with your friends/family, you can also play along with them and make the moments well spent.
There are also fun events and activities to bring about cohesiveness to the family which creates more heartwarming moments and memories.
Hock Wong– This is a ‘Wealthy’ brand famous for its iconic ‘God of Fortune’ packaging, which symbolizes good luck and fortune. Encased in various types of premium gift sets imprint with DISNEY Characters. What really caught my eyes is the Disney Embossed Royal Duffle Bag. YES, the duffle bag contains 6 pieces of traditional baked or snowskin mooncakes, and what’s more? It can be used for shopping or for picnic or other barangs. It’s really cool and it comes with 6 different flavours- Chocolate, Matcha, White Lotus, Pandan Lotus, Pandan Lotus Single Yolk, Purple Potato.
There’s another packaging which is the 3D Embossed Multi-function Mooncake Tin box – available in Classic Red and Vintage Black and after which you can turn into your cute daily lunch box, jewellery box or storage container.
A Two-MICHELIN-Starred Cantonese restaurant at Hilton Hotel celebrates the mid-autumn festival with its collection of mooncakes in classic and Snow-skin filled with Assorted Nuts and Jamón Ibérico, traditional flavours such as Double Yolk and White Lotus Paste and Azuki Red Bean Paste and Pine Nuts. The Snow-skin mooncakes in flavours like Premium Oolong Tea Chocolate with Orange Paste, the Lychee Martini and Chocolate, Yam White Chocolate with White Lotus Paste and Azuki Red Bean Chocolate with Green Tea Paste. All mooncakes comes with set of 4.
Photo credit: Shisen Hanten at Hilton Singapore Orchard
Rivon 【禮坊】
Rivon is a popular Taiwanese brand for the French style wedding cakes and biscuits, in fact it can be a gift for any other important occasions none other than Mid-Autumn Festival. Adapted by its own product, the mooncakes also come with the special fillings – Italian top black truffle sauce Chinese and Western fusion of creation of [Black Truffle Cream Crisp], which comes with an exquisite packaging box filled with Taiwanese cultural and creative art design. There are other flavours like egg custard, mango sago, chestnut Bird Nest, pineapple. Taiwan mooncakes are quite different from Singapore especially on its outer look- they have in squares, round and fluffy crispy type in inimitable traditional bakes but not in snow skin texture.
Guo Yuanyi 【郭元益】
Guo Yuanyi collaborates with fashion brand APUJAN Jam Park to launch a limited edition of 2,000 boxes of designer gift box “FOR YOU”, which not only brings a new handmade “top egg yolk crisp”, packed in a two-tiered wooden box where there’s a blend of Chinese and Western cake vibes. The egg yolk crisp filling is made up of Banten red beans made by Pingtung and the selected Taiwanese black tea to come up with unique tea taste to another level, focusing the salty aroma of egg yolks marinated in Yilan, and the perfect balance with the sweet filling. Something worth mentioning will be its outer skin which is rolled by the master with a century-old craftsmanship to make 27 layers of puff pastry, hence appeared to be extremely crispy and delicate.
Do visit their website to shop for more: 郭元益伴手禮,招牌酥皮系列,金獎鳳梨酥,金獎綠豆糕,人氣伴手禮,喔熊OhBear專區 : 郭元益/L’AFFECTION購物商城 (kuos.com)
There are indeed too many choices for Let’s Hung folks to choose from, the above selection is simply one of the fine choices that are more unique with special premium packaging and varieties as well. Yes it’s better to source for one before it’s too late as a gift or for a reunion party on this day and while stock last! Let’s Hung would like to wish everyone a good reunion and blissful Mid- Autumn festival. Good Health and Prosperity!