It is a Mid-Autumn Festival custom to gift mooncakes. In this Mid-Autumn Festival in 2026, we both bought and received mooncakes, but also received a different, special present: the keys to our new house!
My parents purchased a terraced house in a new residential area in our city last year in 2025. Originally, the construction of our new home was expected to be completed in late July 2026, which happened to be around my birthday, so I had hoped that we would receive the keys to our new house as a birthday present. However, that wish did not come true due to delays in the construction work.
After waiting for more than a month, we eventually received the news that the construction of our new house was complete, so we paid off the balance for our new home. The home developer then responded that we could schedule an appointment to pick up the keys to our new house, so we arranged a visit to the developer's office on 25 September 2026, on the Mid-Autumn Festival.
When we received the keys to our new home from the developer's representative, our real estate agents also gifted us mooncakes to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and then we headed to our new house.
Furthermore, our real estate agents bought a pineapple for us to perform a pineapple rolling ritual. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is a Chinese custom to roll a pineapple in a new house, since in Hokkien, "pineapple" (黄梨) is pronounced the same as "fortune comes" (旺来), so rolling a pineapple in a new house symbolises ushering in wealth and prosperity.
We inspected our new home. For the most part, the house is in good condition, though there were still a few defects. Unfortunately, the door to my room could not open, so we filed a complaint to the developer afterward. There was no water and electricity supplies to our new house yet, so we will have to wait for the developer to handle the necessary procedures for us.
About a year after purchasing our new house, we received the keys at long last. However, we expect it will take several more months to prepare for the move, including buying new furniture and moving some of our existing belongings and furniture to our new home, so we will not officially move into our new home until next year.