Mooncake Festival 2013

Last year I blogged about mooncakes and very briefly about the Mid-Autumn Festival, so this year I'm going to show you what happens in China Town around this time of year.

The Chinese have so many festivals it's hard for me to keep up with all of them! Today, once again, is the Mid-autumn Festival / Mooncake Festival where Asian countries worship the moon by gathering together, eat mooncakes, pray and celebrate with lanterns.

In China Town there's always a smallish gathering, tents set up, singing and other things... I got to see the start of it (before and eating dim sum, heheh) on Sunday 15th... (I didn't even know this was going to happen!!)

So before I ate dim sum, a singer (don't know his name) was rehearsing... Sang a bit in Mandarin...

Singer rehearsing

The red lanterns are up

Then after dim sum, I got to see a dragon dance. My video is a little awful...

And then there were introductions from Spectrum Radio host Joseph Wu Pui Sing. My mother used to be a follower of Chinese Spectrum Radio (AM) before they turned digital, and now she can't be bothered to turn on her laptop (yeah she can browse the net) just to listen to the radio! My mum says every time she goes out to China Town during these special occasions she always see Joseph Wu Pui Sing. I always recognise his voice too!! Heheheh...

Chinese Spectrum Radio Hosts

Representatives of the London Chinese Community I think... (I forgot!!)

We left before the party got going, but there were mooncakes being sold and a girl was dressed like one of those ancient Chinese goddesses... ^_^

Mooncakes being sold on a stall at £4 each!! 

Girl dressed up

Not sure what happened afterwards, but I'm sure a lot of people stayed around to listen to the music and watch loads of other performances... 

中秋節快樂！！Happy Mid-Autumn Festival / Happy Mooncake Festival 2013!! ^_^

CNY Celebrations in London Trafalgar Square

Before I start blogging about the food I ate yesterday, here's a post on yesterday's Chinese New Year celebrations in Trafalgar Square. 

Miss Pinky and I were only there for about half an hour because it was cold, wet, windy and rainy, the weather conditions of Scotland... and my socks got wet too! :( Well as my brother said the other day, it's the Year of the Snake, and the Chinese say the snake brings water (only if you're superstitious!).

Stage in Trafalgar Square

I love it when the red lanterns go up! And the entertainment we saw was cool!  Too bad I couldn't watch all of it...

London is very multicultural place and celebrates a lot of different festivals from around the world, of which I am quite happy about... So here's some pictures I took earlier of the festivities in Trafalgar Square, and at the end of this post are some short clips I took of the music and dance (sorry for all the umbrellas - they were in the way of all my shots!).

Red Lantern from Casino at the Empire

Musician playing the erhu

年年有餘 Nin Nin Yau Yu - lucky fish to bring you fortune!

The stall seller

Fortune Cats!! ^_^

Some dancers on the big screen

One of the dancers

More dancing!

It's the year of the snake!! ^_^

Loads of people with their umbrellas - it was freezing! Just like being in Scotland brrrrrr

Trafalgar Square fountain

Side of the stage!

More entertainers!!

The video clips... They aren't brilliant, but watchable!

Hopefully it won't rain next year!! 
Did you go? What did you like about it? And will you go again?

Psssst, it's Chinese New Year ～＞°）mニニニニ＝～

Once again Happy Chinese New Year or Happy Chinese Lunar Year or Happy Spring Festival...Whatever you want to call it! 新年快樂！恭喜發財！

Before I start heading out later in the afternoon to enjoy myself and hopefully not get drunk etc., here's a comic by yours truly The Geek (because I haven't done one in ages)! And it's in Cantonese with English translation on the comic... :D 

Note: The comic is actually drawn onto one page, but I've split it up here for easy reading purposes! 

Enjoy the celebrations!!

Chinese New Year's Eve 2013

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year!! Yay!! This year is the year of the Snake... Psssssssssssssst. ^_^

Most people I know get their Chinese sayings wrong so here's just some quick and easy sayings you need to know before saying it in front of a Chinese / Asian person... (I wish I could get some audio recordings for you here).

Chinese New Year Sayings (Traditional Chinese characters)	Pronunciation (Cantonese in Yale/Mandarin)	Meaning
新年快樂	Canto: san nin faai lok Mando: xin nian kuai le	Happy New Year
春年快樂	Canto: cheun nin faai lok Mando: cun nian kuai le	Happy Spring Festival (Mainland China use this to differentiate between Western and Chinese New Year)
恭喜發財	Canto: gung hei faat choi Mando: gong xi fa cai	Wishing you happiness and prosperity (people consider this saying as ‘Happy New Year’ … It’s not really)
年年有餘	Canto: nin nin yau yu Mando: nian nian you yu	May you have more throughout the day (as in money luck and fortune)

Jumping onto other bits of info you need to know about Chinese New Year. It is usually celebrated either in January or February every year depending on the Chinese Lunar Calendar.

There are 12 animals that are celebrated, and only one of those 12 animals is celebrated once every 12 years! There are many links and stories out there on the Internet about it, so I don't think I need to explain the story of the Chinese Zodiac. But here's a clip I found on YouTube if you haven't heard the story... (It took me a long time to choose a good one to show here!! O_o)...

For kids it's a time of the year to get rich but it depends on how many family members they know and if those family members are married or not. Special red envelopes (紅包 hung baau or 利是 lei si) that are designed for Chinese New Year are given to them. In Hong Kong or China the amount of money will vary depending on how rich or poor the family is... So I wonder who will be receiving these red envelopes soon... (although I'm not married and I am giving these away to some friends' kids! I'm not that stingy!)...

Aren't these Red Envelopes cool?!

Every year China Town, Chinese restaurants and shops all celebrate this festival! And every year it's ALWAYS busy!! Everyone wants to see the Dragon Dance and hear the banging of drums and the clashing of cymbals... And usually there's a mini concert. Heheheh. And I always try to avoid the area during this time of the year especially when the celebrations are on the weekend! However Miss Pinky wants to go... So I will be there in the evening! 

I went to China Town a few days ago, and they've put up the lanterns as they do every year and during every Chinese festival! See how pretty they all are...

Gerrard Street at its best!

Can you find this lion on Wardour Street?

Wardour Street!

The other side of Gerrard Street!! ^^

Well, if you are heading out to China Town this weekend (especially on Sunday), have a great time. Check out China Town's website to see what's on before going: http://www.chinatownlondon.org/news/chinese-new-year-2013--year-of-the-snake-starts-in-style/48/380

TONIGHT a lot of Chinese people will be out and about, they will be singing, eating and drinking up until midnight!! ^_^

新年快樂！恭喜發財！^_^

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! 中秋節快樂！

Today is the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, which is also celebrated by other Asian countries such as Korea and Japan. A lot of Chinese people will be celebrating tonight with lanterns (electronic and traditional ones) - now where did I put my ones...? Heheheh, I'm a bit old for that stuff!

There are many different stories surrounding this festival, so I've included a Wiki link here for people to have a read instead of me having to reiterate the stories. :D 

I took this picture last night before midnight... The moon was so bright and pretty sitting out there all alone. ^^

A full moon - bold and bright!

And here's the original picture...

Original shot of last night's full moon

Don't forget to eat mooncakes tonight!! ^^ 中秋節快樂！

Happy Chinese Valentines Day! (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)

Happy Chinese Valentine's Day! Yes, today is the 7th day of the 7th month on the Chinese calendar and the Chinese celebrate The Weaver Girl and the Cowherd 牛郎織女 (ngau long jik neui)... 

Instead of me explaining the myth, here's a wonderful YouTube video I found that explains it all!!

七夕快樂！情人節快樂！^^

Mooncakes 月餅

I know this is an early post but it's that time of the year when the Chinese (and other Asian countries) celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節 (jung chau jit) early with mooncakes 月餅 (yut beng)!! The festival is on every 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese Lunar calendar... So it's actually on October 1st September 30th this year!

Loads of different mooncakes!

Majority of mooncakes on sale are from Hong Kong

What are mooncakes? Mooncakes are "cakes" made with a filling of lotus or mung bean paste wrapped in a crust. Some have one or two duck egg yolks inside or none at all. Unfortunately mooncakes are generally fatty because lard is used to make the crust and a lot of sugar is used.

There are actually many stories surrounding the origin of the mooncake, but they are used to celebrate the lunar moon. And so mooncakes are shaped into a "moon" (although mainly squared and cubed shaped) and are eaten whilst gazing at the moon.

So on my trip to Wing Yip, I bought a tin of mooncakes, which usually consists of four mooncakes and a plastic knife (I took the knife out of this picture)...

The cheapest mooncakes on sale at the moment

There are always 4 in a tin

Always read the label before you buy them!

It says 大同月餅 (the name of the company) on top 

Double yolk!

Because I don't really like the egg yolks as they are usually salty I bought myself a pig shaped mooncake filled with only lotus paste ^_^ (I still haven't eaten it yet!).

Piggy mooncake 

Last year instead of the normal mooncakes, I bought these "icy crusted" mooncakes 冰皮月餅 (bing pei yut beng). With these you put them in the freezer instead of the fridge and you eat them as if they were ice cream cakes... ^_^ These I had bought in the bakery at Wing Yip...

Icy Mooncakes ^^

I can't remember the fillings... ¬_¬

If you have never tried mooncakes before, try the ones without the duck yolk first - be careful to look at the labels first before buying. Prices range from £20 - £30+. Best time to try them out is probably after the festival because that's when the mooncakes go on sale! ^_^ They are sold in all / most Chinese supermarkets / foodstores.