Mooncake Festival

The Moon festival (also called the Mooncake or Mid-Autumn festival) falls on September 12th in the year 2011. What is the Moon festival? Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the whole year, the Chinese celebrate "zhong qiu jie." Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface. The legend surrounding the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times, to a day when suns appeared directly in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine additional suns. times the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, his partner found the pill, took it, & was banished to the moon as a result. Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival.

Other Moon Festival Legends
According to another legend, on this day the "Man in the Moon" was spotted at an inn, carrying a writing tablet. When questioned, they said they was recording the names of all the happy couples who were fated to marry & live happily forever after. Accordingly, as June is the traditional month for exchanging nuptials in the west, lots of Chinese weddings are held in the work of the eighth lunar month, with the fifteenth day being the most popular.

Of work, the most famous legend surrounding the Moon festival concerns its feasible role in Chinese history. Overrun by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, the Chinese threw off their oppressors in 1368 AD. It is said that mooncakes - which the Mongols did not eat - were the ideal vehicle for hiding & passing along designs for the rebellion. Families were instructed not to eat the mooncakes until the day of the moon festival, which is when the rebellion took place. (In another version designs were passed along in mooncakes over several years of Mid-Autumn festivals, but the basic idea is the same).

How to Celebrate the Moon Festival

Today the Chinese celebrate Mid-Autumn festival with dances, parties and see the moon. Not to mention mooncakes. While baked goods are a common feature at most Chinese celebrations, mooncakes are inextricably linked to the Feast of the Moon. Traditional Mooncake type is filled with lotus seed paste (see picture aside). About the size of a human palm, these mooncakes are filled, which is cut diagonally in quarters and circular. What explains the excessive cost (about $ 5.00 in Canada). A word of warning: the salt of yellow in the middle, representing the full moon, is an acquired taste.

More elaborate versions of mooncakes containing egg yolk (which represent the phases of the moon). Besides lotus seed paste, other traditional fillings include red bean paste and black bean paste. Unfortunately for the diet, moon cakes are high in calories.

While last week did historicallyin mooncakes to make, automation has speeded up the process considerably. Today, moon cakes can be filled with everything from dates, nuts, fruits and meats in China. More exotic creations, such as moon cakes, green tea and table PEI or snowskin moon cakes, a change in South Asia to the cooked glutinous rice flour. Haagen-Dazs is even in the act by introducing a line of ice cream mooncakes in Asian markets.

Given the difficulty of them, most people prefer to purchase their mooncakes instead of making them. You will find them in bakeries in Asia will begin in mid August.