DIY Your Own Mid-Autumn Festival Lanterns

The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the loveliest and most colorful Chinese festivals that celebrates the end of the autumn harvest. During this period, the moon is at its brightest and fullest size. Moon-viewing parties and lantern-walking are popular ways to mark the festival. Lanterns of all shapes and sizes are carried and displayed. They’re symbolic beacons that light peoples’ paths to prosperity and good fortune.

Recycling Dry Used Tea Leaves

Family gatherings are a common Mid-Autumn Festival occurrence as people come together to enjoy mooncakes and different types of Chinese teas. With so many people coming together to celebrate and drink tea, there can be a lot of waste produced. While most people simply dispose of the used tea leaves, others came up with creative ways to reuse tea leaves. Rather than leaving all the waste produced to be thrown away, they store tea leaves for reuse. The dried tea leaves may be used to:

1. Nourish gardens, in the form of compost
2. Keep cabinets dry because they absorb excess moisture
3. De-odorize refrigerators. If your fridge has an odor that just won’t go away, consider cleaning with tea leaves. To keep it smelling fresh, replace the tea leaves every few weeks.

Five Ideas for Making Unique Mid-Autumn Festival Lanterns

Creating lanterns is a favorite pass-time activity among children that helps them bond with their parents or guardians. Are you looking to create and showcase some unique Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns around your neighborhood with the kids? Here are some DIY ideas with easy-to-follow steps that you can have fun with your little ones making:

(General supplies needs include scissors, glue, hole puncher, knife, ribbons, strings, double-sided tape, colored markers, watercolor paints, paintbrushes, white papers, and colored papers)

• Using ice-cream sticks

If you have lots of ice cream sticks lying around the house, you can put them to good use this Mid-Autumn Festival by making lanterns.

Use the sticks to make a square and secure an electric tealight onto the inner side. Glue either the white or colored papers onto it. Tie the ribbon around the lantern and secure it into a knot. If the kids like they can draw their favorite cartoon characters on the paper using colored markers to make it livelier.

• Using foolscap papers

Foolscap papers are great for use in DIY projects if you’re looking to make a colorful piece of art.

Paint the foolscap with your favorite color and after it dries, create a pleat of 1.6cm-wide folds along the length of the paper. Without unfolding the paper, create more folds down the folded paper strip. Unfold it to reveal the beautiful pattern and then glue the ends together. It should now look like a cylindrical paper ring. Stick some electrical tealights inside the lantern to help it illuminate.

Using a different foolscap, create two circles that are the same diameter as the ends of the cylinder. Punch holes on one of the circles and glue both to the top and bottom. Loop a string through the homes to create a handle.

• Using a pomelo

This bittersweet citrusy fruit will help the kids appreciate the traditions when they create a pomelo lantern.

Draw shapes on the pomelo rind and carve them out using a knife. Poke two holes into the top of the pomelo where the string will go in. Put a candle inside the lantern and light it up during the celebration.

• Using a plastic cup

Looking to inculcate the habit of recycling in your kids? We suggest you make a Mid-Autumn DIY lantern using a plastic cup.

Measure the cup’s top circumference and cut a white or colored paper to work as the cover. Puch homes onto the circle where the string acting as a handle will go through. If you like, you can cover the entire cup using colored paper so that it glows colorfully at night. The kids can draw different patterns on the paper to decorate it.

Put electrical tea lights into the cup, put the lid on, and you’re good to go!

• Using a cereal box

Instead of throwing away the empty cereal box in your kitchen, use it for this DIY project. Using a knife, open up the box and cut the flaps from the top and bottom. Glue the ends together to form a cylinder.

Tape fairy lights onto the sides of the lantern. What’s left no is to bring the beautiful creation outside and show it off to the world.

Tips for DIY Lanterns for the Mid-Autumn Festival

1. Get as creative as you wish to and enjoy the project
2. Shop for the right supplies beforehand
3. Recycle and reuse as much as possible to avoid waste.
4. Make the final product colorful by painting if you need to.
5. Include the kids in all the steps so that they feel useful at the end of the project

GSHK Mid-Autumn Festival Hampers

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also a time to eat and make merry. We have a wide range of premium hampers to send to your loved ones during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The best part is that they come with a complimentary message card, and you can have the hampers customized with a logo or ribbon at an extra cost.

Our delivery services for these hampers will be available from 22^nd Aug-2^nd Sept 2022. (Note: Free delivery to Hong Kong metropolitan areas)

• Gold Blossom Fruit Hamper with Kee Wah Mooncake & Wine or Champagne

This fruit box contains hand-picked and hand-packed fruits such as apples, kiwis, oranges, pears, citrus leiocarpa, green pears, grapes, dragon fruit, avocado, grapefruit, pomelo, pineapple, and melon from the orchards.

This hamper includes:

• 13-15 seasonal fruits
• Traditional Kee Wah bakery mooncake
• Choice of Wine or Champagne (French Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Champagne or French Red Wine)
• Gift Hampers Hong Kong Fabric Gift Box: 35cm(L) x 25cm(W) x 15.5cm(H)

• Moonlight Fruit Hamper

There’s no better gift hamper for your friends and family this Mid-Autumn Festival than this healthy fruit hamper. It contains a rich selection of fresh and ripe fruits making it a perfect gift for someone whose health you care about.

This hamper includes:

• 22-24 seasonal fruits like apples, kiwis, oranges, pears, citrus leiocarpa, green pears, grapes, dragon fruit, avocado, grapefruit, pomelo, pineapple, melon
• GHHK Handle Rectangular Basket: 45cm(L) x 32cm(W) x 10.5cm(H); with 1 large fruit & x other seasonal fruits

• Bright Moon Fruit Gift Box with The Peninsula Mooncake

Part of the Mid-Autumn Festival tradition involves sharing fruits and mooncakes with friends and family at reunions. This gift box makes all that possible without much hassle.

This hamper includes:

• 13-15 seasonal fruits like apples, kiwis, oranges, pears, citrus leiocarpa, green pears, grapes, dragon fruit, avocado, grapefruit, pomelo, pineapple, melon
• GHHK Hexagon Gift Box: 35.5cm(L) x 31cm(W) x 16cm(H)

Conclusion

There’s no time of the year that Chinese kids love more than the Mid-Autumn Festival. Apart from devouring the yummy mooncakes and receiving gifts, they get pumped up with the amazing lantern-making projects. The five ideas we’ve listed are easy to make and are bound to provoke feelings of accomplishment in the kids.