There’s a version of the Mid-Autumn Festival most of us grew up with: a paper lantern from the provision shop, a mooncake you were too full to finish, and an early night. Then there’s what’s happening at Chinese Garden right now, which involves putting on a hanfu, walking a stamp trail written around The Legend of Madame White Snake, and going home with a printed photo you didn’t pay for.
Wan Qing Mid-Autumn Festival @ Lights by the Lake 2026 runs from 19 to 27 September 2026, and every single thing in it is free.
This is Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall’s signature festival, and this year it has a new address. The Memorial Hall at Balestier is closed for restoration and revamp works, so its Mid-Autumn programme has moved west, presented with Jurong Lake Gardens and the National Parks Board (NParks) as part of Lights by the Lake 2026. A gazetted National Monument being under scaffolding turned out to be the best thing to happen to this festival’s footprint.
The Hanfu Booth Is the Main Draw
Hanfu has been having a moment on everyone’s feed for a couple of years now, usually as someone else’s photoset in someone else’s city. Here it’s a drop-in booth at the Bonsai Garden, supported by Murong Hanfu, running 6.30pm to 9.30pm on 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27 September. You step into the robes, pose, and walk away with a printed photo keepsake, no booking, no fee, no upsell at the end.
Worth knowing before you plan your evening: the hanfu booth and every other Bonsai Garden activity run on those five dates only, not across the stamp rally’s full run. The garden itself stays open from 5.30am to 12am, which is a generous window for a stroll, but the hands-on stations keep their own three-hour shift after sunset.
Xiao Qing’s Delivery Run
The genuinely clever piece of programming here is Xiao Qing’s Special Delivery: Chinese Garden Stamp Rally, which runs longer than the festival proper, from 19 September to 4 October 2026. Xiao Qing is the green snake from the White Snake legend, and the rally casts her on a delivery mission across the garden. You walk to key landmarks, collect a stamp at each, and the story unfolds panel by panel as you go.
Complete it and there’s an extra keepsake waiting, though this is the detail that catches people out: redemption only happens on 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27 September, at the Bonsai Garden, between 6.30pm and 9.30pm. Collect your stamps on a quiet Tuesday afternoon and you’ll have to come back on a festival evening to claim the prize.
Lanterns, Stamps, and Mooncake Dialects
Of everything at the Bonsai Garden, the two stations worth arriving early for are lantern making and multi-layered stamp printing. The lantern craft station is the one with a queue system, admitting visitors every 30 minutes with last admission at 9pm, so treat 8.30pm as your real cutoff. You make a glowing lantern, then carry it through the garden at night, which is the entire point of the exercise.
Multi-layered stamp printing is the underrated one. You build a postcard layer by layer, choosing between a scene from The Legend of Madame White Snake or Wan Qing Yuan itself, and the result is a souvenir that looks handmade because it is. It’s the closest thing here to a craft you’d actually frame.
The third drop-in, Garden, Games & Heritage, spreads three stations around the Bonsai Garden covering Chinese garden design, the landmarks of Chinese Garden, and the stories behind mooncakes from different Chinese dialect groups. That last station is the sleeper hit, because most people can name a mooncake style without knowing whose kitchen it came from.
Storytelling in Two Languages
The Tales of Mid-Autumn Festival storytelling sessions run at the Tea Pavilion, in Mandarin on 20 September and English on 27 September, each at 6.45pm and 7.30pm. Local authors and veteran storytellers including Shirley Ong and Priscilla Wong handle the telling, with support from the Speak Good English Movement and the Speak Mandarin Campaign.
Families with young kids should grab Let’s Celebrate with Uncle Ting, a free activity booklet on the legend of Chang’e and Mid-Autumn customs. One per child, first come first served, while stocks last, so it’s an early-evening errand.
Two Exhibitions, One Free Postcard
Both travelling exhibitions sit at the Grand Arch and run 19 September to 4 October 2026 during garden opening hours. Mid-Autumn Festival: A Taste of Reunion covers mooncake moulds and Singapore’s artisanal mooncake makers, and it leaves props out so visitors can take their own shots.
Wan Qing Yuan: A Journey Through History and Heritage is the one that fills in the backstory of the villa now closed for restoration. It was originally the Bin Chan House, it housed prominent local figures, and it sat at the centre of significant historical events in Balestier. Visit it, then make the matching Wan Qing Yuan postcard at the Bonsai Garden on one of the five activity evenings.
If you’re planning a weekend around Mid-Autumn anyway, this slots neatly beside the heartland programming that fills out any list of things to do in Singapore this month. The difference is that Chinese Garden gives you the night walk, the lake, and the lit-up scenery as the backdrop rather than a car park.
🗓️ Date: 19 to 27 September 2026 (stamp rally and exhibitions until 4 October 2026)
⏰ Time: Bonsai Garden activities 6.30pm to 9.30pm on 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27 September; Chinese Garden opens 5.30am to 12am
📍 Location: Chinese Garden, Jurong Lake Gardens
💰 Price: Free
🔗 Details: Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall website and Instagram (@sysnmh)
The last hurrah is this weekend, 25 to 27 September, and it’s the only remaining window for the hanfu booth, the lantern station, the stamp rally redemption, and the English storytelling session on the 27th. Set a reminder for 6.30pm, bring a fully charged phone, and check the programme on the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall website or through the National Heritage Board for what the Hall does next once restoration wraps!
Photos and visuals courtesy of Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall and the National Heritage Board.
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