The other day, I was going over archives on our website. I realized we had so little content on the Mid-Autumn Festival! So, after consulting our editing team, we decided to give you more information about this wonderful celebration. While there is a lot of material on the festival online, I would like to cover a different angle: Mid-Autumn Festival and keeping family traditions.
On my own blog, I have given a quick intro to the different origins of this day. I even shared a kid-friendly, no-bake mooncake recipe. However, when we talk about any cultural celebrations, we always come to the same conclusion: in the modern world, the celebrations may not carry the same meaning, but they are still upheld to keep family traditions going.
A Gathering of the Family
One of my favorite cartoons, Over the Moon, portrays how a father and daughter run the mooncake-making business and how the whole family comes together on that day to cook and make mooncakes with different flavors. Although they belong to the same family and live in the same town, each has different ideas about what filling should go inside the mooncakes. Whenever I watch the cartoon, I always contemplate how diverse our families are, even if they share the same culture.
The main activity during the Mid-Autumn Festival is just that: families coming together. Families cooking together and sharing gifts. Families going out and watching the moon. In my city, it is quite popular to go out for picnics. People often sit by the riverside to see the full moon. I was even able to capture the Moon at a 100 times zoom with my phone and it is magnificent!
The concept of being together as a family during cultural celebrations is very much emphasized in China. To the extent that for such important dates as the Mid-Autumn Festival, National Week, Spring Festival, Labour Day, and Qing Ming (Tomb Sweeping) Festival, the government adds an extra day or two so that people can take time off work and school to spend with their families. Keeping up with the culture and heritage, along with following traditions is one element that keeps family connections tightly knit.
It’s not only Chinese families that observe such traditions. Generally, in Southeast Asian countries, family traditions keep families connected and united and give them a feeling of belonging.
Multicultural Family Traditions
As a parent of multicultural and multilingual children, I believe in keeping some traditions. Creating our own traditions can also help make our family stronger and closer. Adopting this positive influence from the local culture has kept us connected to local people. It has also allowed us to build new friendships within the expat community. We have been getting together with a few families for a couple of years for a picnic or a potluck dinner. We share stories and laughs during these gatherings. All of us come together for a common reason: to give our children a sense of community and belonging. Of course, we also aim to create lasting memories of families being together. Hopefully, these are memories they can carry into their own adult lives.
I have a good friend who grew up celebrating various festivals in their household, regardless of their origin. The parents wanted to make sure their children were exposed to different cultures. It was also an opportunity for them to bond together as a family. So, even if you are not celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival per se, perhaps you can just learn from its meaningful purpose: to keep families together and family traditions going. And, perhaps, that can give you some ideas on bringing closeness to your own families.
Related posts
Easy Mooncake Recipe for the Mid-Autumn Festival
Visiting Cultural Festivals to Teach Kids about Other Cultures
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Wonderful insights on celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival! Keeping family traditions alive fosters a sense of connection and cultural heritage. These practices create lasting memories and strengthen family bonds. Thank you for sharing