Wan Qing Mid-Autumn Festival 2020: Digital Edition

Join in the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations by Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall from home by making mooncakes and solving riddles with your family!

Location: Online & On-site
Date: 14 Sep – 11 Oct 2020
Hour: All-day
Fee: Free

The well-loved Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations by the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall is going online this year! The inaugural digital edition of the festival brings heritage closer to home with a line-up of family-friendly digital initiatives such as cooking classes, storytelling sessions, and interactive craft demonstrations.

Held online via the Memorial Hall’s Facebook page, the festival invites you to celebrate and acquaint yourselves with the rich historical and cultural significance of the festival as part of the memorial hall’s efforts to promote Chinese arts, culture and heritage.

Here are some of the highlights of the festival!

1. Lantern Installation: “Rolling in Abundance”

Location: Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall - Lawn
Date: 12 Sep – 11 Oct 2020
Hour: 10 am – 9 pm

Produced by Hong Kong artist Sunny Tam of the collectible label, 78JO in collaboration with the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, “Rolling in Abundance” is an outdoor installation featuring four large roly-poly fish lanterns.

In Chinese culture, fishes (“yu”) symbolize completeness and abundance, as it is a homonym for the Mandarin word for “abundance” (“yu”). The rounded nature of the design is doubly symbolic, as roundness (“yuan”) also sounds similar to the Mandarin word for “reunion” (“tuan yuan”), and pays homage to the full and bright mid-autumn moon.

“Rolling in Abundance” utilizes wordplay to present traditional beliefs and values in a modern context, and encourages deeper understanding and appreciation of the beauty of the Chinese language.

More importantly, in these trying times, the installation embodies hope for more abundant years to come and gives thanks as we reunite with families and loved ones during Phase 2 of Singapore’s circuit breaker period.

2. In the Kitchen with Chef Eric Neo: Pulot Hitam Snowskin Mooncake

Date: 23 Sep 2020
Hour: All-day

What’s Mid-Autumn Festival without mooncakes? Though traditionally filled with sweet lotus paste, these days you can find mooncakes in an eclectic mix of flavors, from Ferrero Rocher Snowskin Mooncakes to Red Lotus Paste with Bakwa Mooncakes. Why not, join in the bandwagon and try your hand at making this Mid-Autumn treat with a local flavor – Pulot Hitam Snowskin Mooncake! Chef Eric Neo from InterContinental Singapore and Nicole Chang Min will guide you through the steps.

3. Mid-Autumn Craft Tutorial: Create Your Own Moon Gazing Binoculars

Date: 26 Sep 2020
Hour: All-day

If you want to catch the moon goddess Chang’er and her loyal companion, the Jade Rabbit, you’ll need a good pair of binoculars. Get into the festive spirit by making your own Moon Gazing Binoculars this Mid-Autumn. After all, the moon is said to be in its fullest and brightest during the Mid-Autumn Festival, so you might just get to see her!

4. Mid-Autumn Tales: “Happy Mooncake Festival, Elena!”

Date: 21 Sep 2020
Hour: All-day

Join actress and storyteller Karen Lim in an interactive storytelling session as she reads “Happy Mooncake Festival, Elena!” and journey together with Elena and her friend Bunny! Little ones will get to learn more about the connection between the Moon Goddess, Jade Rabbit and yummy mooncakes. If you’re up for the challenge, you can also try your hand at answering quiz questions related to the story along the way! 

5. Fun with Lantern Riddles

Date: 19 Sep 2020
Hour: All-day

Lantern Riddles are a quintessential game played during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Dating back to ancient China, they were popular amongst scholars as a way for them to test each other as well as show off their wits. Aren’t you curious about how you will fare? Attempt a series of fun lantern riddles and find out! Rope your little ones in to find out how they’ll fare as well!

6. What Kind of Mooncake Are You?

Date: 1 Oct 2020
Hour: All-day

Mooncakes come in different shapes, sizes, designs, and flavors. Are you a traditional Cantonese lotus paste mooncake or an exotic and ethereal Yunnan flower mooncake? Instead of rolling your head thinking about it, you can now find out what type of mooncake you are with this infographic! This fun infographic also teaches about the different varieties of mooncakes from cultures all around the world!

7. 10 Crazy Myths About the Moon

Date: 16 Sep 2020
Hour: All-day

Did you know that during the full moon, creatures known as werewolves - humans turned wolves - run wild? Well, not really, that’s just one of the many crazy myths related to the moon. If you’re interested in discovering more intriguing and wacky myths about the moon, this light-hearted Mid-Autumn video is for you.

8. Virtual Museum Guided Tours

Date: 20 & 27 Sep | 3 & 8 Oct 2020
Hour: -

Learn more about the contributions of the Chinese business pioneers to the development of early Singapore with the talented student guides from River Valley High School as they take you on a virtual tour of the Memorial Hall’s revamped Gallery 4. The tours will be presented as a four-part video series, available in both English and Mandarin.

Photo credits Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall