Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival is almost here. In Chinese, it is called 中秋节 zhōng qiū jié, although Kan Tang folks may refer to it as 月饼节 yuè bǐng jié (direct translation of Mooncake Festival) or 灯笼节 dēng long jié (direct translation of Lantern Festival). It is associated with moon worship, moon gazing and family reunions. A major part of the celebrations revolves around mooncakes (yum yum) while another tradition involves the carrying of brightly lit lanterns.
Feeling nostalgic? I remember carrying the traditional lanterns made of paper and lit with candles.
Modern lanterns are now plastic types with batteries emitting some chimes (which start off as nice
Riddles can also be written on lanterns for others to guess. This is called 猜灯谜 cāi dēng mí.
My wife and I used to visit the Esplanade around the Mid-Autumn Festival period to challenge ourselves in solving the 灯谜. This year, the riddle-guessing activity is held on 29th Sep, 30th Sep and 1st Oct. If you are interested, do check out the details in this event list.
(disclaimer: this is not a sponsored post)
中秋灯谜 are no different from the “English riddles” that we’re used to. Some riddles rely on wordplay and puns. Others can be solved by examining the riddle or clue in parts. If you are the blur or slow type who really need a guide on how riddles in general work, click here.
Now try these out:
A1. Hot is faster, because you can still catch a cold A2. It is rich because it has 2 banks A3. Fire
A4. Grape. If you take away the 1st letter, the word left is "rape". If you take away the first 2 letters, the word is "ape".
If the first and last letter are gone, the word is "rap"
中秋灯谜 work on similar principles. Look out for associations or double meanings. Break down words into their components or reassemble units to form new words and answers. To get some background, see my earlier posts tagged "Deconstruct" and "Twins & Triplets".
Just for fun, I’m going to share 1 灯谜 everyday, starting today until the actual Mid-Autumn Festival (八月十五 which is on 4th October). The riddles are meant as fun challenges so go ahead and test yourself. Share them with friends and hopefully you'll pick up more Chinese words & phrases in the process.
Here are 3 灯谜 as warm-up . Each comes with the answer and explanation. In case you're lost, start from the answer and reverse-engineer to get back to the riddle. With more practice, you'll be familiar with the 灯谜 styles.
Warm up
Q1. 一箭穿心 yī jiàn chuān xīn
[Guess a word]
心 = heart & 箭 = arrow. 一箭穿心 literally means an arrow through the heart. So if you imagine the word 心 (shown in red below) and an arrow (grey) going right through it, that gives you the answer: 必 bì (which means "must" or "certainly").
Q2. 大河没水, 小河干 dà hé méi shuǐ xiǎo hé gān
[Guess a word]
There are 2 parts to this riddle. And both sets of clues are guiding you to form the components that lead to the answer.
Part 1 is 大河没水. Start with the word 河 hé (river). 没水 is to be without water.
Therefore, take away the 三点水 (in blue) which leaves you with the word 可 kě (in brown).
Part 2 is 小河干. 干 means to dry up. In other words, it's without water too and that gives you another 可.
Stack the 2 可 together (in black) and you'll get the answer 哥 gē (which means "older brother").
Q3. 此字虽大只半边, 小口居然在下边
cǐ zì suī dà zhī bàn biān, xiǎo kǒu jū rán zài xià bian
[Guess a word]
There are 2 parts to this riddle (hope this is straightforward enough to see). Similarly, both parts are hinting to remove or add components that would later fit together like a jigsaw.
Part 1 is 此字虽大只半边.. if we zoom onto the word 大 and take only 半边 bàn biān (meaning "one half"), you'll get the orange portion in the picture below.
Part 2 is 小口居然在下边. Here you can take it literally i.e. there is a 口 at the bottom (in black).
Adding the black and orange parts together and you'll solve the riddle: 右 yòu (which means "right" as in "right side").
Practice makes perfect. There are a total of 15 灯谜, one per day (in levels of increasing difficulty) up til Mid-Autumn Festival (4th October).
Hop over to the next post for the first 灯谜 (tag: Mid-Autumn Festival).
Hoping you have a nicer expression when guessing riddles.
Interestingly in this movie scene, Gollum was guessing riddles with Bilbo.
Their riddles are shown here. GIF from GIPHY