Mid-Autumn Festival / Mooncake

After a tiring week and a quirky Mandarin exam on Friday (on Sept. 14 - the writing part was very easy, but listening and then writing the correct Pinyin was apparently considered by most students as difficult; we all laughed in the exam because we didn't understand anything...), I had a nice experience on Saturday evening (pretty in the dark, i.e. after 7pm) at Clarke Quay (ckeck out the hip place on the rather dire site http://www.clarkequay.com.sg/), where a wonderful Chinese explained me the numerous Lanterns hanged around the River (apparently depicting the 100 most common Chinese surnames out of a total of only 593). Originally, Chinese names seem to be inherited matrionially (or matrilineally?)
Some other big devices (i.e. lanterns, in specific shapes) empytomized Conficius, the great poet Li Bai (who wrote the story behind the Mooncakes, if I am not wrong) and a big gate (fixed at a bridge at Clarke Quay).

Further down at Chinatown, there was a big procession with lantern-wagons depicting numerous Chinese mythological items.


http://www.visitsingapore.com/publish/stbportal/en/home/apps/event_detail.html?pageName=home&buttom=detail&eid=7413