Mid-Autumn Festival Storytelling (14/09/2013)
| Venue | ： | Tsimshatsui Book Centre, Exhibition Hall Shops B1007-1010, B1/F., Miramar Shopping Centre, 132 Nathan Road, Tsimshatsui |
| Speaker | ： | Hong Kong Talespinners |
| Host | ： | Ms. Christa Tam |
Review
What a marvellous time we had at our Mid-Autumn Festival thanks to the Hong Kong Talespinners' captivating tales!
Daneigh Sung started by sharing traditional customs in the Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures at Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival is a time for family reunion in Chinese culture, very much like the spring festival; people celebrate by eating traditional moon cakes which are round with different fillings, ranging from lotus paste and salted egg yolks to mixed nuts. The Japanese's festival is called Otsukimi (literally moon-viewing), and people have Tsukimi Dango, a kind of rice dumpling shaped like ping-pong balls. For the Koreans, it is a time for thanksgiving and to celebrate an abundant harvest with family and friends. Songpyeon, half-moon shaped rice cakes with different fillings such as red bean paste, chestnut and sesame with honey are eaten, and women also perform an elaborate circle dance in beautiful costumes.
Lynne Kirk followed with a story from India about how the rabbit was rewarded by the Mighty God to live on the moon after its life on earth ended, because it was ready to sacrifice its life for a hungry beggar.
Christa Tam told a Panchatantra story called The Moon Lake in which intelligence prevails over might. A tiny rabbit fools the Elephant King into moving his herd of elephants away from the beautiful lake where the rabbits live, and saves the rabbits from being killed or injured.
From the Congo came an interesting "Pourquoi?" (French, meaning "why?") story by Jenn Horgos about why there are monkeys today. According to legend, they were humans who were turned into little monkeys by the God because of their arrogance in believing that they could reach and grab a piece of the moon.
Lisa Tam shared a story about the origin of moon cakes. They commemorate the Han people's revolt against the Mongol rulers a long, long time ago. It was on 15th August in the Lunar calendar when a piece of paper was put in each cake to pass on the message of revolt to the people.
While many stories were from the past, Jan Mann gave a fantastic example of how new stories can be created all the time with a story from Grace Lin's new book, Starry River of the Sky, about the waxing and waning of the moon.
The audience was captivated by the Talespinners' performance. We are really proud of our young listeners in the audience and we know that in time they will understand more stories as they continue joining our events. They loved the singing session led by Lynne after the stories.
We thank the Hong Kong Talespinners for their wonderful performance and their commitment in sharing stories with us.
In you are interested in learning more about the group, please visit https://www.facebook.com/HongKongTalespinners or contact them at hongkongtalespinners@gmail.com
