Mid-Autumn Festival Celebrations 2009

This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations at Mindsville took place on Saturday, 10th October.

The day started off with station games in the afternoon, followed by a barbeque dinner prepared by the expert hands of our seasoned volunteers. After some delicious mooncakes, everyone then went for a stroll while carrying beautiful paper lanterns.

Volunteers hard at work preparing materials for the station games.

After giving out the residents' lanyards, it was time to begin the day's events!

The first station involved residents putting together pieces of various puzzles to form pictures, some of which were items and people related to the Mid-Autumn Festival (notice the mooncake on the right side of the photo above?). The residents expressed happiness and satisfaction when they were able to complete the puzzle, as well as recognize what the pictures represented.

Is that Houyi I spy on the left?

At the second station, residents were given pictures of, once again, items and people related to the Mid-Autumn Festival. This included the moon, Chang'e, and August 15th (to represent 8月15日), to name a few.

They were then required to find the floating counterpart of the picture they received in the small inflatable pool, and use an improvised fishing rod to 'fish' out the same picture.

Busy looking for Houyi...

At the third station, a game based on musical chairs was played. However, instead of chairs, paper lanterns were used. When the music played, everyone would walk around in a circle while dancing.

But as soon as the music stopped, everyone would have to grab a lantern from the floor immediately!

Whoever did not manage to get a lantern (since there would always be one lantern less than the number of people playing the game) would then have to answer a question about the Mid-Autumn Festival (such as "What do you eat during Mid-Autumn Festival?"), to reinforce the knowledge they had learned.

At the final station, the residents were given the opportunity to barbecue food! With the help of the volunteers - who bravely risked the hot oil splatters - the residents were able to grill chicken wings, satay, and other meats.

Mmm... tasty.

Whoo! It's hot!

After a water break, it was time for dinner (skillfully barbecued by the volunteers and residents alike)!

The residents tucked into their food with gusto. Many agreed that the food was very tasty! Now you know who to look for if you ever need barbecuing services...

Now, what would the Mid-Autumn Festival be without the prerequisite MOONCAKE?

Despite the amount of food consumed earlier during dinner, it looks like there's always room to spare for mooncake!

As the sun set, everyone set off on a stroll around the neighbouring area with their pretty paper lanterns to light the way.

Which lantern looks nicer? The yellow one?

Or maybe it's the red one...

After a rest stop at a pavilion to relight the lantern candles, it was time to return back to Mindsville, bringing the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations to a close.

All in all, everyone had a good time while learning more about the Mid-Autumn Festival. Even many of the chinese volunteers gained knowledge from the day's activities (now do you remember who Houyi and Chang'e are? :P)!

Aren't these decorations beautiful? Maybe we can aspire to make something like that next time... heh heh.

Hope you had a meaningful and enjoyable 中秋节！ I know we did :D

~ Lina