The great thing about living in a multiracial city is that you get to celebrate all the traditions. Well almost; Jewish festivals, for example, are not widely recognised. Still, between Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny, or Diwali, I get to experience different cultural festivals and customs throughout the year. Next is the turn of the Autumn Festival, and this year the Singapore Tourism Board is trying to make a big deal of it.
A 14-metre tall, S$80,000 (HK$368,000) lantern is being built in Chinatown, in the hope that it will break the record for the world's biggest, currently held by one built in India six years ago.
Meanwhile, a 1.2km-long dragon lantern is taking shape along the banks of the Singapore River, along with a display of traditional lanterns from countries such as Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. This is likely to break the record for the longest lantern, set by Hong Kong.
But what I am really looking forward to is the 10-day Mooncake Museum (at the Arts House), which is going to present the traditional legends of the festival in the form of modern art, with sections dedicated to the sweet pastry. Mooncakes as objets d'art? Well, from the intricate, traditional mould, to the contemporary cartoon character designs and the ever-changing packaging and flavours, the mooncake is a small bite of pop culture.
Apparently, 250,000 mooncakes are made here each year, with more than 60,000 boxes sold during the Autumn Festival season. I have to confess that, up to now, my encounters with the pastry have not really been happy ones. I never quite know what they taste like. The European palate is not really accustomed to the flavours of lotus-seed, red-bean or black-bean paste. Then, there are the different types of crusts, from the baked Shanghai mooncakes with their thick skin, to the snowskin mooncakes, with cooked glutinous rice flour.
But this year, with experts on hand, I have been promised that I will be able to find one to suit my taste, and even learn how to pair it with the right tea.
