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Illumifest 2009
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Courtesy of the City of West Des Moines
Illumifest 2009 is a fun nighttime event for families. Held at the West Des Moines City/School Campus at 4200 Mills Civic Parkway, the event begins Sept. 26, 2009, at 5 p.m. with free carnival rides and lantern making. The lanterns are paper with a wire frame and LED light. A bounce house, live music from Brother Trucker, beverage garden, and Chinese Cultural displays will be available. The event also features hot air balloon rides (beginning at 6 p.m.) and an outdoor showing of Madagascar 2 (at 7 p.m.). Visitors will want to bring lawn chairs and blankets for the movie viewing. Illumifest winds down with a lantern ceremony and parade, and ends at 9 p.m. with laser light show and fireworks over the pond.
Illumifest has its roots in the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival. The Chinese Association of Iowa has hosted a Mid-Autumn Festival since 2003 in various locations around the Des Moines area. From the Chinese Association of Iowa's website:
"A popular East Asian tradition of Chinese origin, dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty, that spread to neighboring cultures like Japan. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.
"The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date.
"Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes [sic] together.
Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as:
Eating moon cakes outside under the moon
Putting pomelo rinds on one's head
Carrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns
Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e
Planting Mid-Autumn trees
Collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members
Fire Dragon Dances
Shops selling mooncakes, before the festival, often display pictures of Chang'e floating to the moon."
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