Fire and candles

Lantern Festival…..usually accompanied with the exchange or feasting of sweet or savoury mooncakes (and sometimes small steamed yams and washed down with little cups of hot Chinese tea, sharing stories and exchange of conversations among good friends.

For Master Prince, sure he enjoys the sweet tasty bites of mooncakes. But the main attraction he looks forward to every night is playing with candles and lanterns.

It must be boy thing – attracted to anything with fire and water. Even with constant reminders and caution to be 'responsible' and aware of the dangers, unfortunately all seemingly forgotten once the match is struck!

So within controlled measure, MP is allowed to have his fun and joy in the darkness. Amazingly he is not afraid of the dark, must be the excitement and adrenaline playing with fire and candles and getting hot wax stuck to fingers!!

I remember playing them with cousins in the garden. In contrast MP plays in a concrete environment and even then, limited to an A3 paper – ha ha…didn’t want multi-coloured wax dripping all over the floor!!! What would MaMa say??

Anyway, despite the limitations, MP really enjoys himself, probably getting his imagination up to ‘mischief’.


The his-story behind is a simple one…… many century ago, the Han Chinese overthrew the Mongolians in a carefully planned uprising through hidden messages stuffed in small pastries. The pastries were distributed by lantern wielding rebels. The full moon on mid-autumn festival also shone brightly to guide the rebels through the maze of the palace. Since then, lanterns and mooncakes have been celebrated each year to honor the new dynasty.

Here's a picture which reminds me of my childhood days when the stores were filled with lanterns hanging from ceiling to floor, back-to-back. I do miss these simple but very effective and colourful days!!