Mid-Autumn Festival

Decorations outside of Parc Versailles.



The first week in October in China means the Mid-Autumn Festival. What does this mean? Moon cakes, lanterns and parties. October 1st is National Day this year marked the 60 year anniversary of communist China. These two celebrations overlapped one another.






We visited the East Asian Games Lantern Display in TST then got on the boat to visit the carnival at Victoria Park. As Americans we are constantly amazed at the lack of merchandise and vendors for these celebrations. We were actually hoping to purchase lanterns for the kids while at the park just for fun. Yes we could have walked down a side street and found a store that was selling them but we had already travelled on foot quite a bit and did not want to venture too far out. If this event were held in America there would be Food Vendors- hats-T-shirts- pins for sale on site at the event. Lantern Festival 09 or Mid-Autumn Celebration at Victoria Park would be sold in many colors and sizes.
 We found lights strung overhead and stages where traditional dances,opera and puppet shows were performed. No rides and no elephant ears. I have been in Hong Kong long enough not to expect the rides or the elephant ears. 
I am not complaining about the lack of ways to fleece me of my money by overcharging me for food,and cheap merchandise.



We attended the Celebration at Sha Tin which is in our area the New Territories. Sha Tin park is sprawling and a nice place to hold an event like this. It was pleasant to walk through and the displays were plentiful and some quite impressive. We caught some acrobats and dancing. The two languages the event was hosted in were Mandarin and Cantonese so we didn't quite know what was going on for scheduled events. We were without our camera then so we only got video of the event. No face painting or animal balloons but you could get your palm read. The line was sadly long for this "entertainment"


Mooncakes

Lotus Paste and eggyolk
I found the traditional Mooncake to be not that bad. The lotus paste has a sweet taste. It is a dense and very rich.