James Seah remembers Mid-autumn Festival (中秋節)in Bukit Ho Swee Kampung

The Mid-Autumn Festival is here again!

Chinese Singaporeans, together with ethnic Chinese all over the world, will celebrate this traditional festival on October 3 this year ( Lunar calendar 八月初八日). It is also commonly known as the “Mooncake Festival” or “Lantern Festival” in Singapore.

Traveling back in time in my mind now, I remember celebrating the mid-autumn festival with my childhood friends in the kampong of Bukit Ho Swee when I was a 9-year-old boy, 53 years ago. At that time, I was staying at 10C, Beo Lane, Singapore before the “Bukit Ho Swee Fire”.

As night fell and the bright full moon took over the sun in the sky, about 12 of my buddies and I assembled at the spacious courtyard of the landlord’s house. The landlord’s grandson was the leader. Each of us carried a paper lantern of different color, shapes and designs. We were happy and looking forward to an enjoyable evening of fun, carrying our lighted lanterns and walking around the kampong in a procession. Some were chaperoned by their parents.

Each lantern has a small, lighted candle. It was a happy celebration for children in the usually quiet kampong at night.

Old photo of roadside stall selling lanterns. Photo courtesy of Derek Tait from page 42 of his book, Sampans, Banyans and Rambutans.

On the night of September 17, 1959 after dinner, my mother brought out my favorite paper lantern. The lantern was wrapped in brown paper and kept in an olden wooden chest box (brought to Singapore from China by my father). I waited patiently as my mother unwrapped the foldable lantern and handed it to me. Every year for the past five years, she had repeated the same ritual on the night of 中秋節. She would store the lantern for me after playtime was over. The lantern must have cost quite a sum in those days. As I write this, I am filled with warm thoughts and fond memories of my mother’s love, the virtues of her thriftiness at a time when people do not have wasteful habits of throwing away stuff which could still be re-used.

I did not know that it would be the last time that I would be playing with my beloved lantern that night. It was a special hand-made, colorful and beautiful lantern in the shape of a rooster. The paper and cloth material and the thin wire-frame of the lantern was sturdy and durable. That is the reason the lantern could be re-used over the years and it was still in pretty good condition.

So why did a joyful event ended up as a disaster, a “kill-joy” for a child of 9?

That night, my precious rooster lantern went up in flame within minutes …. burnt to ashes except for the metal frame and the metal candle holder.

A group of young “terrorists” (neighborhood children who are slightly older than me) were out that night looking for some fun. Their victims were the young children carrying lanterns in the procession.

For want of a better word, I use the term “terrorist”. Actually they were only mischievous boys who were “street bullies” acting tough. They were out to terrorise other kampung kids who were not as tough and younger than them.

The “mid autumn festival” coincides with the “buah duku” season, when the fruit was in abundance and sold cheaply at most local fruit stalls. These “terrorists” use the thrown away rind of the “buah duku” as “bullets”.

With a rubber band shooter or lastic, a small piece of the rind folded in half was used like an arrow (rind) and a bow (rubber-band shooter or lastic) to shoot at the lighted lanterns. On impact, the lantern would catch fire and destroyed. The “buah duku bullet” was a lethal weapon indeed!

(Please check out the what Chuck has written previously on “Good Morning Yesterday” about the Rubber-band shooter and Lastic)

While the children were romping merrily near the tomb of the landlord’s ancestor where we used to play, carrying lighted lanterns and singing kids songs, these “terrorist” (4 or 5 of them) appeared suddenly from nowhere and started shooting the lighted lanterns with the “buah duku” rinds within close range. They were a group of sadistic kids who seems to enjoy watching the lanterns set on fire, while the children were screaming and howling. The “terrorists” then escaped into the darkness as mysteriously as they had appeared, and nobody knew who they were.

It was a sad night for the “victims” and their parents. However, a few of the better-off parents immediately went to the shops to buy their children a new lantern.

My mother looked at me sadly when I returned home empty-handed, without the lantern. I was sad too, and felt sorry for not taking care of the 5-year-old lantern. My mother did not scold or scream at me though.

I understood her feelings and told her that I would stop carrying lantern on 中秋節 after that fateful night. I did not want her to buy me another lantern, comforting her with the excuse that I was too old to be carrying lanterns at age ten the following year. I already knew how to be “paiseh” at that age : ) I really missed the rooster lantern. It would have been a collector’s item.
While sharing this amusing story with my friend, Ng Eng Tee, I learnt that when he was young, he carried home-made “armoured” lanterns which his brother made for him, using condensed milk tins. He was then staying in the Ulu Pandan kampong (now a high-class residential area at Queen Astrid Park).

Eng Tee drew me a sketch of the “condensed milk tin lantern”. The picture here (created by my son Liwei who is putting his professional Photoshop skills to good use) is self-explanatory.

The “condensed milk tin” is definitely “terrorist-proof” and would not have suffered the same fate as my rooster paper lantern when shot with the “buah duku rind bullet”.

Indeed, “necessity is the mother of invention”, and the creatively designed “condensed milk tin” lantern was made at almost zero cost, except for the price of the candle.

According to Eng Tee, he had as much fun on中秋節 as any other children who were carrying lanterns bought off the shelf. There were no “terrorist kids” to burn down their “armoured lanterns”.

祝大家中秋節快乐.

Wishing everyone a “Happy Mid-Autumn Festival”.

Related posts:

1) Chap Goh Meh celebration at Havelock Road in 1958 by James Seah

2) Mooncake Festival by Laokokok

3) Lantern Festival by Philip Chew