Monday, September 15, 2008

中秋节 (Mid-Autumn Festival)

Today is 中秋节. It has crept up on me without me knowing and just jumped into my face when I least expect it. Not having a Lunar Calendar as well as TV to tell you when is 中秋节 or Chinese New Year is crap. T-T

Last year 中秋节 crept up on me too. I came home from school to find a single mooncake being cut up and shared in the house. It felt like a slap in the face and I had to stop tears from falling out of my eyes. Tears which were already welling up under my eyelids.

This year I was fore-warned a week before and I was pretty prepared for it at the start of the week. But with the among the usual chaos with housework and schoolwork and piano, the thought of Mid-Autumn Festival somehow flew out of my head and into the stars above. Never to be found again. This time it felt less like a slap in the face. More like the wind knocked out of my stomach, knowing that I have, yet again, forgotten about this traditional Chinese festival which I enjoy the most, next to Chinese New Year.

In my family, it would be tradition for my house to be stocked up full of mooncakes and pomelo. Then on the day itself, we would be sitting outside at night, drinking tea and eating mooncake, watching the moon and me and my sisters (and any other relative present) would be playing with candles and lanterns. To know that I have missed it without knowing, makes me feel really cut off from my family.

At least it'll be different next year. Should I say it? All of you will eventually know anyway. Right. I will be going to Singapore for university next year. I don't really know when, but it should be between July and August next year. So pupils from Singapore feel free to dump me with websites that teachers have given you to guide you into university. I have been on those university websites and it feels utterly confusing. I simply will not believe that you only need to get a C in GCSE Maths to get into a Psychology course in NUS. It doesn't make any sense. So pupils of Singapore, please give me some websites to make some sense of what they are saying.

By the way, this is a mooncake:And this is a pomelo:Nuff said.

"Learning sleeps and snores in libraries, but wisdom is everywhere, wide awake, on tiptoe." - Josh Billings









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