Happy Mid autumn!

I have always loved celebrating mid-autumn festival. When I was a kid, my mom would always bring us to grandma’s house where all my relatives would gather to celebrate this once-a-year-festival. I, my siblings and cousins enjoyed playing candles, lanterns (we absolutely loved to burn them) and eating moon cake. Since, my grandparents live in a Chinese village; this festival is celebrated with much enthusiasm, with the children playing lanterns, the teenagers playing fireworks and the adults enjoying their conversations. My grandparents’ garden would be surrounded by candles and filled with laughers. My 4th auntie, whom I considered to be ‘cool’ would bring along her kids, all whom are still very young and also lots of fireworks. She would then be the commander and the kids were her recruits.
She would teach us to play fireworks, not those minor ones but huge and extremely loud ones. Her children were the elite groups where they would li
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t the fireworks in their hands, and threw them on the floor, precisely on time before it explode with a loud bang. We enjoyed competing with the neighbors to see who could play them better. Whenever we hear a loud firework, we would feel challenged and lit a louder one. Despite all the danger no one got hurt before, perhaps because of the ‘training’ provided by my auntie. We used to have this tradition of reusing empty coconut shells. We would fill them up with wax (leftover from candles scrapped from the garden) and burn them. They produced a very nice coconut smell. The day would end with everyone taking a walk the in neighborhood, along with lanterns.

But sadly, over the past few years, mid autumn festival has just been another ordinary celebration. My family no longer goes to my grandpa’s house as there was no more celebration there. I have not seen some of my cousins for months, the last time were during Chinese New Year. Because I stay in a city where there are only a handful of Chinese, mid autumn festival is just another typical working Saturday.