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Moon Cake Festival in Penang is celebrated to observe the ending of the harvest season. Generally observed on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, Moon Cake Festival is also known as the Lantern Festival in Penang in Malaysia. Fun, frolic, social gatherings, mooncakes and lantern parades are organized. This festival speaks about the Mongolian oppression on the Chinese in early period when communication was greatly curbed among the natives. Liu Fu Tong of the Anhui Province devised this plan to distribute rebellious messages in cakes shaped like the moon. This simple measure provokes a greater mutiny that finally overthrew the Mongols. Features of Moon Cake Festival in Penang - Much before the celebration of this festival, Chinese restaurants start selling mooncakes, the round shape of which denotes unity of family according to Chinese faith.
- You will find varieties of mooncakes like the black bean paste , brownish lotus paste and yellow bean paste
- Mooncakes are exchanged by the families of Chinese origin.
- On the day of the festival, mooncakes, deep fried chicken, roasted pork, water calthrops, water melon seeds and Chinese tea are given to deities and ancestral spirits on the altar.
- Even lanterns in shapes of dragon, butterfly, rabbit and carp are lighted and kept in front of the individual homes.
- Joss-sticks, red candles and golden joss-paper are also burnt.
- Children go around the locality with the lanterns after prayers and feast.
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