My Mid-Autumn Celebrations - 2013

Mid-autumn Festival is  a  Chinese celebration and is also called as lantern festival.They celebrate it  on a  full moon day by lighting up beautiful lanterns and by tasting the yummy moon cake.They also light sparklers on that day. I always find this particular festival very lively and very colourful. Though it falls on a   full moon day, I can see lantern fest being celebrated as  a  community celebration where people from all races take part days before the actual festive day arrives.Many Community Centers (CC)and Resident Committees(RC) organize various events for teh lantern festivals.Even malls have fun filled activities for the public  to engage.There are many moon cake stalls in the various atrium's of malls.Every year I try to be part of this mid -autumn fest even though I am a  non-Chinese.

This year our mid-autumn celebration started rather unexpectedly. I had mentioned about our trip to SEA Aquarium.There was mid-autumn celebration at VIVO City.Guess what?An attempt to get into the Singapore Book of  Records was being made to be part of Singapore's largest number of hand painted lanterns were being displayed and it was a  success too.We joined in the fun and painted a  lantern .All the  three of  us painted .The display was rather too beautiful.As it as a  very long display, we couldn't spot our lantern.

display of lanterns

Arsheitha also took part in  the mid-autumn celebration held  at Century Square in partnership with NLB, where she listened to a  story telling session about how  the mid-autumn celebration came about and the tale of Rabbit and the moon.She made  a  greeting card using Origami pattern rabbit.

Then on the  actual lantern fest(19-9-2013), Thursday, I took Arshi to our  near by park where there was mid-autumn fest going on.Arshi had painted her own lantern that day and so we bought that for the celebration.

Moon Cake

lanterns

Arshi painted these two lanterns

Kids from different races participate making it a  community festival

Candle lit lantern

LED lantern

It was a chill evening and   and  we  were greeted by soothing Chinese melodies .I could see people of  all ages gathered there with their lanterns lit up and walking around the park.Nowadays, with the technologies , we have LED lanterns  too .I could see  a  mixture of  both candle lit lanterns as well as LED lanterns being lighting up the whole park.Kids with lanterns  are always beautiful.Took a    few pic a s  usual.I couldn't spot moon that day.Arshi and myself  were looking for  moon  till 9.30 pm  but  couldn't spot any as the sky was too cloudy.

What is mid-autumn celebrations without a   visit to China town in Singapore?The next day, I took Arshi to China Town.Every year, mid-autumn is  celebrated in a  grand way there.I have bee going to China Town for both Chinese New Year as well as Mid-Autumn festival for a   few years now.I had  planned  to go there almost 2  weeks before but was postponing it.Beautiful and  colourful lanterns were hung around the streets of China Town.It was  a   beauty to see  them both in the day time as well as  in the night time.The lights in the lantern were lit up   during night time.

I also made a    quick visit to Buddha Toot Relic Temple.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

 We walked across the streets.

There was display of  hand painted lanterns outside China Town MRT.They just looked  so lovely.They were painted by school kids.Arshi loved  all of  hand painted lanterns.

Beautiful lanterns were still being hung outside some shops along Pagoda Street for sale.I loved watching the various Chinese stuff which were sold there.

 Night View:

I visited the two Hindu Temples -Lyan Sithi Vinayagar temple and Sri Mariamman temple that day before heading to Little India  for Arshi's music class.

As I walked along , I spotted the beautiful harvest moon lighting up in  the sky.

We stood    for a  moment to capture its beauty .Sometimes pausing for a  moment does provide some great beauty for us  to see and enjoy.

S.E.A. Aquarium and The Maritime Experimental Museum

Warning:Before you proceed to read this blog post, remember this is  a heavy photo based blog post as I couldn't resist uploading many photos as I loved most of them.

This weekend we visited S.E.A. Aquarium, the world's largest aquarium.I had been hearing about this for  a quite long time and finally got chance to sneak at this beautiful aquarium.We went by mono rail.I should say, It was a  very long due visit to Sentosa.Last time I visited Sentosa was in the year 2008.They were constructing Resorts World Sentosa at that time.Now I could see many changes in Sentosa.We enjoyed our short monorail ride and hopped down at RWS stop.

@Vivo city

monorail ride

view from monorail

Before heading down to SEA Aquarium, we made a  short photo pose for Universal Studio as well.

Before heading down to SEA Aquarium, we made a  short photo pose for Universal Studio as well.S.E.A. Aquarium is located at Resorts World Sentosa and it is housed inside Maritime Experimental Museum.We got to see both the museum well as SEA Aquarium.

It's gonan be  a  blue time from now  onwards.....

Maritime Experimental Museum:

I could see lot of olden day ship models of  different countries as well as the goods traded by those countries.There were many at crafts from different countries too on display .

Indian Snake Charmer

trades by Indians

We can design our own pottery there online for  fun

Arshi's creations

cross section of  a   ship carrying animals....

S.E.A. Aquaruim:

 We took a  quick view of  all before entering SEA Aquarium.As it was School holiday weekend, the queue was super duper lengthy(waiting time was more than 45 minutes to enter the S.E.A. Aquarium).Maybe we should have planned our visit on some other normal weekend.I really loved every second I spend at S.E.A. Aquarium.I still have the feel of  being there surrounded by colourful fishes,dolphins,sharks,corals,jelly fish,starfish and many more under water creatures.The photos I took there will speak about them.

Ship wreck

Mangroove forest 

Jelly Fish

Now we are standing in the World's Largest Aquarium and World's largest Acrylic viewing panel and it is certified by Guinness Book of  World Records.

Should I name this?

beautiful coral reefs

Coral reefs

Hope you enjoyed watching the photos and I am sure you will experience more fun when being here in person.S.E.A. Aquaruim is a  place not to be missed if you happen to be in Singapore or  happen to come here for sight seeing.