In Singapore, celebrations of the Mooncake festival is concentrated on the Chinatown Mid-Autumn Festival. From September to October, Chinatown—the beating heart of the Chinese in Singapore—is transformed into an extravaganza of shimmering lights, themed lanterns, street bazaars, and stage shows, all to pay homage to a festival that reaches back into the very roots of Chinese culture.

On 11 September 2010, visitors can join the rest of Singapore in witnessing the official light-up and opening ceremony. Chinatown will be enhanced with radiant festive lights and glimmering lanterns lining the streets, a display that will continue until 15 October 2010. You can also pick up a lantern for yourself at the street bazaar (8 September till 22 September 2010)—ranging from the traditional paper-and-candles type to plastic varieties modelled after cartoon characters.

With a lantern in hand, join in the mass lantern walk on 18 September 2010, which promises to turn the streets into a dazzling procession of lights. The street bazaar also offers a multitude of traditional goodies like pomelos, Chinese tea, and most of all, mooncakes.

For the culinary adventurous and budding gourmands, sample scrumptious moon cake (a rectangular box or circle shape thick pastry dough filled with yummy ingredients) in traditional flavours like lotus and egg yolk or exotic varieties like durian, chocolate, coffee and ice-cream.

Staged shows will also be performed every night from 8 September 2010 to 22 September 2010, and remember to make way for dragon dancers offstage as they weave their way through a season of reunion and revelry.

Source: http://sgholiday.com/2010/08/moon-cake-festival-2010/

The 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar is celebrated by Chinese around the world as the Mid-Autumn Festival or ??? (Zhong Qiu Jie). The holiday always coincides with a bright full autumn moon. Like many Chinese holidays, food plays a prominent role.

On this day, Chinese will eat nian gao or glutenous rice cakes and mooncake, made up of bean paste or lotus-seed paste packed inside a pastry layer. There is sometimes even a salted duck egg inside. Many Chinese will admit that they don’t really like eating moon cake, but like the fruitcake at Christmas, giving the gift of mooncake seems to be a case of tradition beating out taste.

The Fable of the Woman in the Moon

The holiday is all about tradition. And like so many festivals, it begins with a fable. The story has many, many versions, but the one I was taught as a child goes like this: In ancient China, there wasn’t just one sun in the sky. There were ten. The ten suns burned so bright that no crops would grow and the people began to starve.

In this time of crisis one man, rose to the challenge. The archer Hou Yi was well known for his skill with a bow and arrow. With support from his wife Chang’e, he shot down the suns, one by one. Just as he was about to shoot down the last one, his wife stopped him. The people and plants still need light to prosper, she said. People across the land were so happy that their suffering had ended and they crowned Ho Yi their king. At first, Ho Yi was a very good king, ruling fairly and with heart. But he soon became despotic, killing without cause and ruling tyrannically, to the dismay of Chang’e. Hou Yi’s ultimate fear was death and he became obsessed with immortality. So he sought out a witch doctor, who provided him with a pill that would allow him to live forever. When Hou Yi’s wife, Chang’e found out about his plan, she knew she had to stop him. At night, as Hou Yi slept, she crept to the place where the king had hidden the pill. Just then, her husband awoke and demanded to know what she was doing. Without a thought, Chang’e swallowed the pill and suddenly began to fly up into the twilight, until she reached the full moon. And that is where she remains today. If you look closely at the autumn full moon, you will see her there, a pure and shining example of personal sacrifice for a greater purpose.

Some Truth Behind the Tale

It’s an old tale, depictions of Hou Yi shooting down the suns has been found on Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 9 CE) tomb murals. The story is both a parable about the dangers of gaining power and the heroism of sacrifice. But Dartmouth College professor Sarah Allan believes it may be based in some reality.

Source: http://chineseculture.about.com/od/chinesefestivals/a/MidAutumnFest.htm

The term “organic” is cropping up more and more when it comes to food and drink production in the 21st Century. It demands a cleaner and a non-chemically grown product. But how does this affect wine production and can there be such a thing as a wine company who can produce truly organic wine and stay in business?

As the organic movement grows, there is pressure from environmentalists and increasingly choosy customers to know exactly what goes into their food and drink before they purchase it. Organic wines have previously been accused of being dull, and most of the world’s “best” wines have long been produced in a far from organic way.

The place to start when talking about organic wine is to decide exactly what the term “organic” means to you.

Organic wine is made without the use of synthetic fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides or fungicides. It is also vacant of artificial preservatives or colourings, which may be added to non-organic varieties.

But why go organic? It is thought that many of our foodstuffs have been tainted with chemical build up through the use of non-natural pesticides or fertilisers on the plants they grow and that your body could be affected by consuming them. The build-up of these chemicals, it is claimed by environmentalists, have the potential to cause long-term health problems or could contribute to developing allergies. There is also the question of chemicals from treated crops going into the ground and ending up in drinking water, an issue that has already led to many changes in general crop production and water treatment.

Most commercial crops are grown with the use of fertilisers and other chemicals who kill things that can harm the crop. Continued use of these chemicals can weaken the soil and start to upset the eco-system in the ground. They also lead to some pests developing a tolerance to them which encourages the further development and use of stronger chemicals and further builds up chemicals in the product itself.

The alternative to all this is to grow plants organically. Organic farming is a more time consuming method of production and needs time to replenish the natural eco-system too. Setting up an organic farm means taking time to tackle weeds by hand,
encouraging natural predators of pests who frequent the vineyard, and where this does not work, finding other ways of tackling the many organisms that harm crops. Fertilizer will be compost or animal manure, and a system of planting flowers and herbs to create biological diversity has to be included in an organic vineyard.

Vineyards face an additional problem – mildew and black rot. These are diseases that can ruin a crop and in some cases destroy a whole vineyard. This makes growing organic vines very difficult in regions where there is a lot of humidity. Therefore organic production is most common in hot dry regions where fungal infections are less likely, and where extra labour can more easily be afforded.

To be able to sell as an organic vineyard, the organisation has to be recognised by one of the official certification bodies across the world.

Source:  http://www.floweradvisor.com.sg/lifestyle/interests/organic_products/127/organic_wines___an_alternative_way_of_producing_wine/

See Also : Mooncake, moon cake, Mid autumn festival