Birmingham gears up to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival

 Birmingham gears up to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival

 

Festival-goers will welcome in the full moon this September as Chinese Festival Committee - Birmingham (CFC-B) hosts the city’s biggest Chinese festival after its annual new year celebrations.

On Friday 25th September, The Arcadian in Southside will be filled with colour and life as lion dancers, Chinese fire crackers, cultural dancers and martial artists take centre stage for the Chinese New Moon Festival. A street food market featuring local businesses will serve up a range of Far East delicacies between 4 – 10pm. Celebrations will conclude with a spectacular fireworks finale and viewing of the new full moon.  

Ahead of the festivities, CFC-B will host a charity fundraising dinner on Thursday 24th September at Chung Ying Garden. Supported by Southside BID and Genting Casino, money raised will go towards supporting future Chinese cultural events following Birmingham City Council’s announcement earlier this year that it was removing funding from such events. Tickets cost at £25 per person.

James Wong, chair of Chinese Festival Committee - Birmingham, said: “Chinese New Moon Festival, or Mid-Autumn Festival, is celebrated when the moon is at its roundest. Traditionally it is a date when families come together to share a meal. People travel far and wide to be with their loved ones on this special day.

“This year we are inviting people to celebrate with us in The Arcadian and Chinatown as one big family. The festivities will take place on Friday 25th September and will be fun for the entire family.

Lina Higuita, centre manager at The Arcadian, which is owned and managed by London & Cambridge Properties (LCP) said: "This promises to be another spectacular event that celebrates a key date in the Chinese calendar and we are looking forward to welcoming everyone to the centre for this colourful family occasion."

For more information and to book a seat or table at the fundraising dinner, please go to chinesemoonbanquet.eventbrite.co.uk

 

About Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most charming and colourful annual events that celebrates, among other things, harvest time with the biggest and brightest moon of the year. The festival also commemorates a 14th Century uprising against the Mongols. In a cunning plan, rebels wrote the call to revolt on pieces of paper and embedded them in cakes that they smuggled to compatriots.

Today, during the festival, people eat special sweet cakes known as "Moon Cakes" made of ground lotus and sesame seed paste, egg-yolk and other ingredients. Along with the cakes, shops sell colourful Chinese paper lanterns in the shapes of animals, and more recently, in the shapes of aeroplanes and space ships. On this family occasion, parents allow children to stay up late and take them to high vantage points to light their lanterns and watch the huge autumn moon rise while eating their moon cakes.

 

-ENDS-

 

Note to Editors:

1. When publishing stories about the above event online, please provide a link to our official website:    https://cnybirmingham.org.uk

2. The Mid-Autumn Festival Day actually falls on 19 September 2013.

3. Press requiring accreditation for access to the venue on the day should contact

 

 

The Birmingham Chinese Festival Committee is a voluntary, non-profit making organisation. It's membership comprises of:

 

 

Birmingham Chinatown Lions Club

Birmingham Chinese Women's Association

Birmingham Chinese Society

Birmingham Overseas Chinese Association School

Arcadian Centre Management