Dialogue in the Dark Malaysia presents a whole new way to experience Mid Autumn Festival this August in collaboration with Tai Thong Group. The first and only of its kind to be held in Malaysia, the audiences’ most dominant sense – the eyesight – is hindered to explore the history of the Mooncake in complete darkness.
Mid Autumn Festival is an occasion for outdoor reunions among friends and family to eat mooncakes and watch the moon, which is a symbol of harmony and unity. A notable part of the celebration is carrying the brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, or floating sky lanterns.
I was privileged enough to experience the Mooncake Fiesta in the dark and it was very eye-opening indeed. In the beginning, we were asked to put away all our electronics including watches which emit light and we were given actual walking sticks before entering the darkness. I was very nervous at first and was kind of terrified, but I got used to it a little while later.
In the darkness, the whole experience was complete. With my eyesight gone, I had to focus even more on smelling, touching and listening to move about in the darkness. I also got to enjoy a few slices of mooncake by Tai Thong and also got to learn the art of making mooncakes.
When I finally got out of the darkness, it felt very rejuvenating and humbling. We often times take for granted our eyesight and don’t realize how hard it would be if it was taken away from us. Through this experience, I have learnt to be grateful for my vision and have truly learnt to respect the visually impaired because it takes a lot of courage for one to be able to live in total darkness.
With that being said, I reckon that everyone should visit Dialogue in the Dark for their very own experience in darkness as it is a very meaningful and one-of-a-kind journey not to be missed. Clearly, there were no photos taken during my experience because I was in total darkness.
Dialogue in the Dark is a social enterprise focusing on raising awareness and facilitating social inclusion of the visually impaired into our community through experiential exhibitions and business workshops such as Mooncake Fiesta in the dark to help create employment opportunities for the visually impaired and providing them with a communications platform with the sighted via Dialogue in the Dark as exhibition guides or business workshop trainers. All proceeds from the business are channelled back towards the training of visually impaired guides and to create even more job opportunities for them.
For more information about Dialogue in the Dark, visit this website or DID’s Facebook page.
