Chinese getting ready for Mid-Autumn Festival

Unique designs: Customer Lim Jing Wen taking a closer look at the lanterns being sold at Hewsonix Store Sdn Bhd in PJ Old Town for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

PETALING JAYA: Lanterns in bright colours and various shapes are popping up in shops, with customers spoilt for choice for Monday’s Mid-Autumn Festival.

Similar scenes can also be seen at shops selling mooncakes, a staple delicacy during the festival.

Restaurants, bakeries and home-based ba­­kers use this time of the year to showcase new variations, with durian mooncakes being the current taste.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a harvest festival celebrated annually on the 15th day of the eight month of the lunar calendar, coinciding with a full moon at night.

It is said to be a celebration related to the moon goddess Chang’e, and many celebrate this festival by being outside with family and friends, eating mooncakes while admiring the beauty of the full moon.

Round mooncakes symbolise completeness and reunion, and the eating of mooncakes during the festival signals unity among family members.

Another popular tale related to the Mid-Autumn Festival is that of the uprising of the Han Chinese against the then-ruling Mongols at the end of the Yuan dynasty in 13th century China.

It is said that the rebels used mooncakes to hide secret messages to inform people that they were going to stage an uprising on the day of the festival.