Mid-Autumn Festival in Malaysia

Mid-Autumn Festival in Malaysia is similar with it in China. The most important customs are appreciating the full moon, eating mooncakes, family reunion, and hanging lanterns.
 

Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, has the most abundant and most colorful Mid-Autumn Festival activities throughout the country, including lanterns parades, Chinese traditional opera performances, dragon dance and lion dance, and puppet shows. On that day, Petaling Street is the busiest place.

Besides, in some cities with a large population of Chinese descendants, such as Penang and Ipoh, a lot of Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations will be held as well.
 

People also eat mooncakes on Mid-Autumn Festival in Malaysia. There are various mooncakes on sale in supermarkets during the festival, including Chinese traditional mooncakes and creative local featured mooncakes. Among them, the most popular mooncake in Malaysia is the snow skin mooncake with durian filling. What’s more, to celebrate the festival as well as to attract customers, some restaurants make huge mooncakes for people to taste.
   

It is a tradition for Chinese descents in Malaysia to gather together with other family members to appreciate the full moon at the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, talking and laughing, while eating mooncakes and having their family reunion dinner. There are also organized gatherings to appreciate the full moon.
 

On the festival, all family members gather together and enjoy a big reunion dinner on Mid-Autumn Festival in Malaysia. It has been a tradition among Malaysian Chinese for hundreds of years.
 

On Mid-Autumn Festival, streets and shops in Chinatowns are decorated with colorful lanterns to enrich the festival atmosphere and light up the sky. Many Chinese communities organize lantern painting competitions. The lantern parade is an important activity of the Mid-Autumn Festival in Malaysia. People carry their own lanterns and get together to have a lantern parade on that day. Excited children have great fun carrying various lanterns and running about on the streets.  

See also Why Chinese make Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns?
 

Dragon dance and lion dance are the must for Chinese descendants to celebrate traditional festivals in Malaysia, especially the lion dance. There are many teams and associations of lion dance in Chinese communities. During Mid-Autumn Festival in Malaysia, they play dragon dance and lion dance on the streets to celebrate the festival and to wish people well.  
 

Thean Hou Temple is located in Kuala Lumpur, which is a Chinese style temple that Matsu is enshrined and a landmark in Malaysia. It is a popular place among people to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. There is grand lanterns fair as well. People also play lion dance, sing and dance, and make hand-crafted lanterns and guess riddles. People also gather there to appreciate the full moon at festival night.
 

There are traditional Chinese mooncakes as well as unique local mooncakes in Malaysia like durian mooncakes, cubilose mooncakes, precious black mooncakes and emerald mooncakes.

Durian snow skin mooncakes are the favorite mooncakes in Malaysia. It is sweet and soft with a strong flavor of durian. The stuffing made from durian flesh is creamy. It would be better to eat after being frozen. Its price is usually higher than other types.

The famous mooncake brands in Malaysia that are worth a try include Baker’s Cottage, Oversea, Kam Lun Tai, Tai Thong, Fah San, etc.

Further Reading

Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong

Mid-autumn Festival in Taiwan

Mid-Autumn Festival in Other Asian Countries

Chuseok - Korean Thanksgiving, Mid-Autumn Festival in Korea

Tsukimi, Mid-Autumn Festival in Japan

Mid-Autumn Festival in Singapore

Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam - Têt Trung Thu, Children’s Festival