The Inside Story:
The Chinese have a celebration called the Moon Cake Festival. It is a harvest celebration that dates back to the 13th century. There are a lot of folk tales associated with this festival. Chinese people still celebrate the Moon Cake Festival as it is an important part of the Chinese culture. The Moon Cake Festival began over 800 years ago. It was a traditional harvest festival that was celebrated with Thanksgiving, especially if the harvest had been plentiful. The Chinese people believed that the moon controlled whether they would have a plentiful harvest the next year.
This belief eventually led up to moon cakes becoming a part of this mid-autumn harvest festival. The Moon Cake Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar. The day where the moon is at its fullest. This year it falls on October 6.
The moon cake is a round sweet cake and is a symbol of the full moon. They are usually brown and are made with four egg yolks representing the four phases of the moon. They contain a sweet filling that is traditionally made with lotus seed paste or red/black bean paste. Some moon cakes are shaped like fish, dragons, horses and other animals. Common moon cakes are usually round with Chinese symbols on top.
There are many folk tales associated with the Moon Cake Festival. One such folk tale tells about the legendary archer Li Foo. One morning, everyone woke up to find that there were ten suns in the sky. It was steaming hot and the emperor called his best archer, Li Foo, to shoot down nine of the suns. When Li Foo had accomplished this feat, the emperor rewarded him by giving him his throne, his choice of any woman to be his wife, and a magical herb that would give him eternal life. Since Li Foo was not a very kind man, the woman he chose to be his wife Chang Er had to be forced to marry him. One day, while Li Foo was away, Chang Er found and ate his herb for eternal life. She then noticed that she could fly. She flew to the moon where she could be far away from her husband. When she got there, she saw a hare pounding herbs under a fruit tree. Being very cold on the moon, she started coughing violently and coughed up the magic herb. She then had a wonderful idea. She asked the hare to pound the herb to a dust which she then spread all over the world, giving everyone eternal life. She then built her own palace where she still lives today. Because of her importance in this legend, images of Chang Er appear on all moon cake boxes and festival posters.
Today, Chinese people celebrate the Moon Cake festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing. This holiday is also a good time for families to get together. In American Chinatowns, people get together in the evening to take part in a ceremony that tries to capture the moon's reflection in a bucket of water. They also celebrate by eating boiled peanuts, taro slices, jook rice gruel, raw fish dipped in sesame oil, and fried noodles with shoyu. The Moon Cake festival is very rich in tradition and this is one of the reasons for its popularity in modern times. Although most people don't use the lunar calendar anymore, they still look forward to this annual celebration with its tasty moon cakes, delicious food and colorful ceremonies.
mr_right14 posted on Sep 25, 2006
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Comments
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sunsethue said on Sep 25, 2006....
hey katorse... chinese ka ba? just curious here...
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mr_right14 said on Sep 25, 2006....
Hindi po...
Syempre pinoy, multiculture eh...
Mr_RiGhT
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MikoFabulous said on Sep 26, 2006....
I grew up in Hong Kong and I remember celebrating Moon Festival every year. As children we would get brightly colored paper lanterns and light candles inside them. We would put them on the end of a stick and walk around with them and wait to see the moon. The thing is, Hong Kong was so polluted that you could rarely see the moon, but we were kids and we didn't understand why the moon wasn't making an appearance for us. Here we were standing outside with our laterns, most of us with hot wax burns and NO MOON. We were expecting something out of the movie Moon Struck. We never listened to the history behind it, which our teacher probably told us every year. Kids!
My mother used to love eating moon cake. We would get so many boxes full as gifts, and because they contain an egg inside my Mom thought it would be prudent to freeze some of them. When she ran out of fresh mooncake she decided to pop a frozen one into the microwave. And KABOOM! There was an explosion, and gooey, eggy, sticky, pastey moon cake remains coated every surface of the microwave. We had no housekeeper that day, so the best part was laughing as I watched my Mom scrub all that gunk out of the microwave. She felt so stupid but how was she supposed to know that a microwave would turn a moon cake into an explosive devise.
But YOU'VE been warned!
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Susmaryosep said on Sep 26, 2006....
Mr_right knows more about the Mooncake festival than me, a Chino ! :-)
All this is getting too commercial, and we are losing the warmth of the occasion. And in Malaysia, you would be surprised what they put inside a mooncake..... Durian filling! And many other unmentionables.....
If mooncakes can explode, are they allowed on airplanes as carry in items? :-)
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mr_right14 said on Sep 26, 2006....
Hahaha....
Not unless someone brings a microwave.
I guess its not actually the mooncake, but the fact that it was frozen.
Mooncake has a filling (in the center of course)
That might be the factors of explosion.
Microwave can heat something in seconds.
Making it possible to have some delayed reactions on the substance and burst out in one shot.
An example, which I've experienced and tested.
An e-mail sent to me that heating water in a microwave is a no-no.
I tried it to at least have some facts before I concluded it.
A mug with full of water and heated it in the microwave.
Then ding! nothing peculiar happened.
I took it out and placed a spoon.
Suddenly some bubbles were forming but I never paid focus on it.
I added coffee granules and it burst out.
Like a boiling water, but only for a few seconds.
From your experience...I'll try heating an ice block or ice cubes in a microwave and see what will happen.
Or maybe a donut with fillings and freeze it and reheat in the oven.
Let's see what'll happen if that can relate to your experience.
Mr_RiGhT
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mr_right14 said on Sep 26, 2006....
Durian fillings?
Oh wow!
That woud be so sweet.
I just visit quid's post about favorite fruit and someone there commented and tells about Durian.
I'm in indulgement, wake me up please wake me up....am I dreaming or something?
She just said about Durian Ice Cream....wanna have one...where can I have that in the middle of the night?
Wooooshhh....yum yum yum yum.
Back to the full moon.
Everytime there's a full moon or when times when the sky is clear, I take my scope and see this buddy.
I found peace everytime I'm doing it.
It's like a work of art specially when it shines so bright.
Mr_RiGhT
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secretlife said on Sep 26, 2006....
mr right: i'd never heard of this festival, and found this post to be very interesting. my anniversary is oct 6, so this year i will be thinking about the moon festival and if you post a recipe, maybe i'll make us a moon cake!
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mr_right14 said on Sep 26, 2006....
Try this.
This was the first and only moon cake I've tried to bake.
I just tried to bake and my mom is the expert on this, not me.
(From the net few years back, here's the site:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/recipesdb/view.asp?rid=52)
It's so easy, promise.
I used strawberry jam in here.
You may use any filling, whatever you prefer.
You may even use chocolate. (Belgian cholocate I suggest)
Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup salted butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup strawberry (or your favorite) jam (traditionally
red bean paste is used so if you want a more authentic
version, you can use a can of red bean paste instead of
the jam).
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine the butter, sugar and 1 egg yolk and stir.
3. Mix in the flour.
4. Form the dough into one large ball and wrap it in plastic wrap.
5. Refrigerate dough for half an hour.
6. Unwrap the chilled dough and form small balls in the palms of your hand.
7. Make a hole with your thumb in the center of each mooncake and fill with about half a teaspoon of jam.
8. Brush each cake with the other beaten egg yolk and place on a cookie sheet. (We didn't have a brush to do this, so skipped the brushing step)
9. Bake for about 20 minutes or just until the outside edges are slightly brown
10. Makes 24
In a moon cake, the main factor to consider is the flufiness of the cake. The right mixture of flour, sugar, butter and egg.
Secondly is the filling and how its tastes blends with the bread.
Happy Baking!
PS: If you want more recipe's just message me and I'll give the links. I have lots of that in here. But I can't answer some questions coz I never tried baking it by myself. Except the one above.
Mr_RiGhT
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secretlife said on Sep 26, 2006....
THANK YOU!!! I'll let you know how it turns out!
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totally_cd said on Sep 27, 2006....
hey you really baked it? talaga?
i like eating mooncakes (ongpin has lots of variants) but we bought ours from maxim's in greenhills.
now is the best time to buy mooncakes in your nearest chinese stores.
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Susmaryosep said on Sep 28, 2006....
the best mooncakes and the best durians are found in KL Malaysia... Come!
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mr_right14 said on Oct 06, 2006....
I spend my night gazing in the sky.
It was partly cloudy but the beauty of the moon was astounding.
As of now, I'm eating mooncakes hehehe.
A chocolate filled variant with some sesame seeds.
By morning I'll be eating the other variant, strawberry wipeee!
Sus
I haven't tasted it yet.
You'd said a mooncake with durian filling.
Hmmm wonder what it tastes like?
Sorry if I've been away for a week.
Lots of things and tons of work.
Due to "MILENYO"
Mr_RiGhT
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Susmaryosep said on Oct 06, 2006....
If you are in malaysia, you can't gaze at the moon, becos of the haze, due to rampant jungle burning in Indonesia, our inconsiderate neighbours.....
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mr_right14 said on Oct 07, 2006....
It's awful!
Burning the jungle will cause severe damage to the ecosystem.
Oxygen depletion since it is the major substance needed in burning.
Yet the less carbon dioxide or any forms will be absorbed and oxygen production will also be lessened.
Mr_RiGhT
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Susmaryosep said on Oct 07, 2006....
What to do? We have so 'considerate' neighbours!
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mr_right14 said on Oct 10, 2006....
Why they're just burning the jungle?
If only its possible, transfer the trees to our land.
We need the trees.
Because of these illegal loggers, results to flashfloods and many lives are being wasted.
Mr_RiGhT
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Susmaryosep said on Oct 10, 2006....
Your illegal loggers have gone to Indonesia... susmariosep!
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mr_right14 said on Oct 12, 2006....
Is that true?
Mr_RiGhT
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Susmaryosep said on Oct 12, 2006....
Yes, they have expanded their business, but they are maintainiing it in philippines also.... and Myanmar, and Cambodia, and Laos, and Thailand.....
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mr_right14 said on Oct 12, 2006....
The government must do something.
Illegal loggers should be sentenced to death.
And those of their boss's, multiple death sentence should be imposed.
And before they'll that, they should be in a Fire Ants pit for 1 week!
Mr_RiGhT
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Susmaryosep said on Oct 12, 2006....
Don't you see, all the govt officers are 'passive' partners in the raping of the Earth..... And who needs the most expensive and rare wood? America!!!!
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mr_right14 said on Oct 19, 2006....
Hi Sus!
SoulCast really improved but I'm not yet satisfied.
There be at least an otion of incorporating HTML both in creating posts and comments.
Miss you Sus!
I've been so busy as what I've told you last month.
My God, I need a nap....zzzz zzzz zzzz
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studyadviser said on Jun 07, 2007....
How Long Time I need to spend in Learning Chinese ? This question was often asked by many Chinese beginners. Generally I cannot answer you in one sentence. According to our experience, I have to ask you the following questions at first. 1, What is your purpose of learning Chinese? For Interests, business, exam, job position, etc For different purpose, you will spend different time percentage on Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing. 2, How long time will you spend for studying Chinese in one week? Read more Sourced by I Love Chinese on Hello! Mandarin -
Susmaryosep said on Jun 08, 2007....
What has the learning of Chinese got to do with mooncakes and gazing at the moon? :-)
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asdsddas said on Sep 18, 2009....
What the this is gay -
Susmaryosep said on Sep 18, 2009....
Well, mooncake festival is here again..................... 15 days to go
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