Mid-Autumn Festival

I took this picture in Victoria Park, where lanterns like these hung everywhere for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Considering I got a day of classes off for it (coincidentally I only have classes on wednesdays right now-- the day we got off), I'd say the Moon Festival is a pretty big deal in Asia. From my point of view, it essentially involved lanterns and mooncakes (I tried a mooncake, it's not exactly on my list of reccomendations). Things we saw included the Tai Hang Dragon Parade, lanterns and entertainment in Victoria Park, and a trip to Repulse Bay for a better view of the moon. Honestly, we couldn't have planned it better.

The first thing we saw was the Tai Hang Dragon Dance. This was my favorite part of the festival, partially because I find the story behind it so interesting. It's basically a 220 ft dragon that the townspeople march around with. They stick incense all over it, so it actually looks fiery...or at least smoky. The video below is when the dragon first took off-- I was at the tail. I didn't edit these videos, so apologies ahead of time for the lack of asthetic appeal.



After that, we ran to another location so we could see the whole thing paraded through. Despite the mass amounts of body heat surrounding me, I got a pretty big kick out of it. Check it out:



After that we walked over to Victoria Park. Random decorations were everywhere. Example:

What a baller! While I'm in the habit of posting videos, here's one I took of some of the entertainment that went on:



I read online that young people traditionally go to the beach on the night of Moon Festival to get a better view of the full moon, so that's where we went next. On the way, I noticed the city lights were so bright they looked like day...I'd post a picture but I think you've seen enough.

The beach was fun. We played games to keep ourselves entertained and it was a nice change from what I'm used to. There were lots of people there, too. Everyone had glow bracelets that they stuck in circles in the sand to represent their group and we did the same. Even when I left at 4am, people were still there. Overall, the moon from Repulse Bay looked good considering how smoggy Hong Kong is...We even caught sight of a star or two.

Have I mentioned I have yet to take a breath of fresh air here? I think that's one of the things I miss.