Mid Autumn Chinese Festival – Moon Festival
On the 13th of September, it marked the Mid-Autumn Chinese Day, celebrated as the day of the Moon. A distinct custom of Chinese tradition in such time of the year is properly to admire the moon and lanterns, to drink cassia wine and to eat moon cake. In this special occasion Chinese people from the Valletta ‘s China cultural centre , gathered to fuse poetry, delicious pastries, special clothes, melodies and dances inspired to the Moon of Mid-Autumn.
The set of poems started with the intervention of a special Austro-Maltese writer who read his literature piece’ Six Chinese Lanterns’ that was the creative fruit borne of a six-week trip to Guangxi province. The trip was conceived by Mr Yang, from the Chinese Cultural Centre in Malta, who invited a half dozen Maltese artists from different creative fields to visit the Chinese province. For weeks the visitors travelled through mountainous terrain on what Marshall described as “an arduous journey” and one that was “very challenging – physically, spiritually and intellectually.” The writer absorbed reflections and absorbed meditations” as they wandered through Guangxi and the surrounding provinces, an area he described as “paradise on earth” and “God’s gift to mankind”. After returning to Malta, he reflected on the “indelible experience” and put pen to paper. As a Maltese-Australian he embraced multiculturalism and realised how much stronger he was as a writer when he could intertwine Australian, Maltese and European cultural experiences, rather than drawing from one single identity.
The second guest was a Young Chinese pianist, who played on the notes of a poetry read by an Italian man dressed on a white and black ‘Changshan’ or long shirt. The vocation of the Italian man towards the Chinese culture transpired by his emotive tone while reading an enchanting Chinese poem on the Moon.
Later on the stage filled up with the performance of a beautiful musicians couple. On a bright blue silk dress as her eyes, a girl was singing on the notes of ‘Fly me to the moon’ accompanied by her fined and polite guitarist.
Then the spectacle proceeded with the instrumental performance of a Chinese Woman dressed on a blue and white flowered dress. The woman played the Pipa best known as the Chinese lute, used for musical expressive and dramatic pieces thanks to its own wide range of dynamic notes. The musicality of the instrument perfectly resembled the harmony of the enchanting images projected on the background .
To close off the special circle of performances, the stage invited a beautiful Chinese lady who, on a red tighten dress, performed on the notes of ‘Divination’ . The young woman danced on the rhythms of every musical notes , as a delicate muse inspired by a transcendental phenomenon.
The second part of the Festival included the tasting of a variety of thick tender mooncakes; some based on red beans, ducks’ eggs and some others on sesame and flowers flavoured.
The participants then moved downstairs to get involved into a couple of workshops dedicated to the challenging crafting of cotton red lanterns and the bakery of moon cakes. This time the mooncakes appeared quite of a soft substance derived by rice and coloured on pieces of white, violet, blue and brownish gelatine. Some of the participants felt a bit uneasy and moving out of the comfort zones when tasting this latter variety of mooncakes.
The workshops closed off with our names written in Chinese through a fountain pen wet on a blank ink landing on a piece of white papyrus sheet.
The Festival, was hence a special occasion on the harvest, inspired to the legend which connects it to the moon watching.
