This year, Mid-Autumn festival will take place on October 1.

The festival falls on the day of full moon, a date that signifies reunion.

This year, especially with everyone staying put in Singapore as a result of Covid-19, it might be a good idea to spend some quality time with your family, outside your living room, this Mid-Autumn Festival.

Here are some interesting activities you can consider as you make plans with your loved ones in the next few weeks.

1. Lantern light-up at Chinatown

Beautiful lantern displays are commonly seen and admired during Mid-Autumn festival.

There are quite a few places where gorgeous lantern displays will be lit up by mid-September. If you are looking for places to head to, you can go to Gardens by the Bay, Chinatown and Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.

The official light up at Chinatown will be on Sep. 17, and they are going live for this opening ceremony over Facebook.

The Facebook livestream lets you participate from home, and you can tune in with your family while savouring some delicious mooncakes.

Be sure to follow them for updates!

Following which, the lantern display will be available for viewing from Sep. 17 to Oct. 16.

2. Free virtual tours

For those who are still hesitant to head out too much, you can also get to see the happenings for Mid-Autumn Festival through virtual tours.

There are virtual museum guided tours by River Valley High School students who will bring you around Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall’s revamped gallery.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxli0QTHaeb/

The tours will be available in both English and Mandarin and you can get to know how Chinese business pioneers started out in Singapore a long long time ago.

Apart from the museum tours, you can also do a 360 virtual tour around Chinatown exploring every corner of this heritage precinct in Singapore with just a click of your mouse.

3. Virtual Escape Game Room

If you are not a history buff or prefer something more interactive, there is also an escape room. At just S$5, you get to play an interactive online escape room with your friends, and even stand a chance to win prizes such as Grab vouchers.

Themed as the ‘Chronicles of Chinatown’, you can join the adventures of a historian, Ah Niu, to explore the streets of Chinatown, solve puzzles and crack codes.

Gather your family members to join, or you can even get your friends living overseas to participate!

You might even get some prizes. Sign up here.

4. Mid-Autumn craft making sessions

For those looking for more hands-on activities, you can also learn how to make your own lanterns or Mid-Autumn themed crafts.

This will be handy for parents looking to bond with their children over a fun-filled weekend.

One animal that comes to mind when we talk about Mid-Autumn festival would be the rabbit.

While you tell tales of Chang-E and the rabbits living on the moon, you can bring the stories to life with rabbit design handicrafts.

Or create your own set of binoculars to gaze at the full moon to see if you can really spot the moon lady and her rabbits. But make sure you don’t point at the moon.

These tutorials conducted by Event Arts will be available on Sep. 26 and Oct. 7 via Sun Yet San Nanyang Memorial Hall’s Facebook page.

5. Learn about mooncake making, tea and pomelo appreciation

Mooncakes, tea, and pomelo appreciation are the traditional activities that we do during Mid-Autumn every year. But have you ever wondered why we do that?

Through a three-part video series, you will uncover the meaning and stories behind these activities.

You can learn about the origins of mooncakes with Tai Thong, reasons to drink tea with Pek Sin Choon, one of the oldest tea merchants in Singapore, and find out why are Pomelo fruits eaten during Mid-Autumn.

6. Online lantern painting and photography competition

For those interested in winning some prizes over Mid-Autumn, you don’t necessarily have to do so via guessing riddles or playing games.

There will be two ongoing competitions in celebration of the Mid-Autumn festival this year.

Young families can join the lantern painting competition by downloading the DIY lantern kit online. After painting the lantern, you can submit it online and the ones with the most number of likes will stand a chance to win.

This lantern painting competition will start on Sep. 12 and end on Sep. 26, 2020.

For photography enthusiasts, you can head over to Chinatown to capture the best shot and share it on Instagram between Sep. 19 and Sep. 26.

Similarly, the post with the most number of “likes” will stand a chance to win prizes.

Remember to set your post to public so the organisers will be able to see.

For the full Mid-Autumn Festival programmes, you can click here.

 

Top photo via STB

This sponsored article by Singapore Tourism Board makes the writer crave some mooncakes.