The Mooncake Festival~! Yeah Baby~!
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The August Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most celebrated Chinese holidays. It is held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Chinese families celebrate the end of the harvest season with a big feast. Unlike the American Thanksgiving dinner, the Chinese have mooncakes instead of grandma' apple pie. Friends and relatives also send mooncakes to each other as a way of giving thanks.
Chinese legends say that the moon is at its brightest and roundest on this day. Under this bright autumn moon, friendships are made and renewed. It is perfect for a romantic rendezvous. For many years, Chinese poets write about long lost lovers finding their way to each other on this special night.
The August Moon Festival is often called the Women's Festival. The moon symbolizes beauty and elegance. While Westerners worship the sun (yang or male) for its power, people in the Far East admire the moon. The moon is the 'yin' or female principle and it is a trusted friend.
In fact, many ancient August Moon folktales are about a moon maiden. On the 15th night of the 8th lunar moon, little children on earth can see a lady on the moon. On this magical occasion, children who make wishes to the Lady on the Moon will find their dreams come true. -
In 1280 AD, the Mongolians destroyed the Song Dynasty and controlled China during the Yuan Dynasty (1280AD -1368 AD). Under Mongolian rule, Chinese people were oppressed, persecuted and treated like slaves. Finally, the Chinese had enough and planned a revolution to be held during the August Moon Festival in 1368.
Because Mongolians donÂ’t eat mooncakes, the Chinese planned to overthrow the Mongolians by sending secret messages in mooncakes. Chinese bakers were told to send mooncakes to all Chinese households with the message to execute all Mongolians after the August Moon family gathering. Chinese families were instructed to not to eat the mooncakes until the 15th of the 8th lunar moon.
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Around 2000 B.C., there ruled in Imperial China, an emperor, Son of Heaven and Lord of Ten Thousand Years, who had a peculiar talent for sensing by sight alone the phenomena we now called "earth-warming." One fine summer afternoon, while listening to one of his imperial concubines playing the PiPa (a pear shaped mandolin), and gazing toward his Summer Palace Gazebo, he saw ten suns overlapping each other, beating sharp rays never seen before. Ever conscious of his role as protector of the community, he feared the overpowering suns would scorch the people, dry up wells, rice paddies, lakes and seas. The earth, be dreaded, would overheat and burn to its horrific conclusion.
What was to be done? Quickly he summoned his imperial presence, General Hou Yih, an officer guardsman of the imperial household guards, who distinguished himself as his Lord Protector by having been a very skilled archer of tremendous strength. When he was told of the ten overlapping suns burning brightly at noon and threatening to scorch all on earth, he immediately shot nine arrows aimed at nine suns across the sky. They were reported to be on target, and by the evening, only one sun was going down over the meadows. Earthwarming was no longer a threat to life, limb, and agriculture.
His Imperial Majesty and his consort, the Empress, were impressed. Soon, the Goddess of the Western Heavenly Realm beard of General Hou's giant Leap for mankind. She commissioned him to be architect and imperial builder of a multi-colored rainbow palace from her imperial collection of jade, a gem stone valued highly by the Chinese Imperial Dynasties and henceforth by Chinese people everywhere.
Naturally, as a General, he was able to marshall the sinew of armed men for the building project. The Palace was so well built and so appropriate as a fortress that Her Imperial Majesty felt that it would be a tragedy that a man so gifted should die a premature death, either in a battle or by accident. Therefore, she decided to confer eternal life on him by offering as a reward the "Elixir of Immortality-Life Eternal" in the form of the "Pill of Life Eternally" on the singular condition that he was not to swallow it until a full year of prayerful contemplation and fasting at a local monastery. He took it home, but busy with imperial duties, he had it hidden in a secret place without telling his Wife Lady O-Chang about the potent power of the Pill.
While away on one of his imperial missions, Lady O-Chang accidentally found the pill in its secret hiding place and swallowed it. Lo and Behold! She was airborne within seconds and bound for eternal banishment to the full brilliant moon above to complement the divine natural beauty of the moon with her own beautiful attributes of form and substance. As she was soaring like an eagle at full flight, contrary to the earthly laws of gravity. General Hou saw this totally unexpected turn of events and took arms in hot pursuit.
However, as if by divine intervention, typhoon winds swept and turned him back to earth. His was the earth and all therein to cherish and love till the end of his days Lady O-Chang, on the other hand, became the divinely beautiful Moon Goddess whose celestial realm was the Moon and stars that twinkle like a thousand points of light in a heavenly dance, fluttering, flickering, to and for across the skies at night, delighting one and all, especially during this season of the mid-Autumn Moon, when the celestial Goddess of the moon makes her appearance at the offerings put forward by earth people!
Children are asked to concentrate quietly at these prayerful offerings, for deep thoughts and clear minds do sometimes render the unexpected sighting of this phantom goddess of the night. For some five thousand years now, during the August Moon Festival, Chinese elders repeat this epic legend of magic for children and to all who would listen of how, why, and when this Festive Day and Night is celebrated. Lady O-Chang has reached the status of immortality in the form and substance of the Goddess, as lovely as she ever was while here on earth.
* Lady O-Chang in the story above is also known as Chang-Er locally. -
II. The Man - Wu Kang
Wu Kang was a shiftless fellow who changed apprenticeships all the time. One day he decided that he wanted to be an immortal. Wu Kang then went to live in the mountains where he importuned an immortal to teach him. First the immortal taught him about the herbs used to cure sickness, but after three days his characteristic restlessness returned and he asked the immortal to teach him something else. So the immortal to teach him chess, but after a short while Wu Kang's enthusiasm again waned. Then Wu Kang was given the books of immortality to study. Of course, Wu Kang became bored within a few days, and asked if they could travel to some new and exciting place. Angered with Wu Kang's impatience, the master banished Wu Kang to the Moon Palace telling him that he must cut down a huge cassia tree before he could return to earth. Though Wu Kang chopped day and night, the magical tree restored itself with each blow, and thus he is up there chopping still. -
III. The Hare - Jade Rabbit
In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men and begged for something to eat from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the rabbit, empty-handed, offered his own flesh instead, jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself. The sages were so touched by the rabbit's sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the "Jade Rabbit." -
Different Varieties of Mooncakes~!
The most commonly seen mooncakes are soft pure lotus paste compactly wrapped in smooth golden brown pastry. Lotus paste is actually a combination of lotus seed and lye water boiled and blended into a paste. The addition of peanut oil and cooked glutinous rice flour result in a sticky paste which is then rolled into a ball, clothed with a well-mixed dough and stamped with an intricate pattern.
Mooncakes either come plain or with one, two, even up to four salted egg yolks tucked snugly in lotus paste filling. The ones with single egg yolk are thought to represent the loneliness of the Chinese goddess Chang Er who flew to the moon to escape the clutches of her husband.
Apart from egg yolks, some lotus paste fillings are also sprinkled with assorted nuts, fruits and even ham bits. This has always been a favourite with older Chinese folks.
The immense popularity of mooncakes have inspired many new recipes, one of which is the non-baked version with soft chilled pastry. Best kept refrigerated and eaten cold, these mooncakes come in incredibly imaginative flavours like strawberry, orange, pandan, banana, lemon, and even milk.
While regular mooncakes are smooth, soft and slightly sticky, special Shanghai mooncakes are loved for its crunchy pastry. With a lovely aroma of butter, they come in an imperfectly shaped ball with shiny glazed brown 'skin' that doesn't crack easily despite its crispiness.
The incorporation of local and Japanese elements into the mooncake is apparent with the births of the durian and green tea mooncakes. Even ice cream parlours are getting into the game by introducing kiddie-friendly ice cream mooncakes - ice cream coated with a sweet chocolate crust bearing similar Chinese-like patterns.
With the latest mooncake additions of jelly and Garfield-shaped mooncakes, one wonders if, in the race to tap into untouched mooncake markets,
Singaporean have fallen more in love with the unusual rather than the original. This question can well be laid to rest because the common sight of stacks and stacks of festive traditional mooncake boxes in homes all over the country is evidence that nothing can ever take the place of the real thing.
Other types of Mooncakes in town
Exotic
- Szechuan pepper truffle; cream chesse and golden raisins; snowskin ginseng and bird's nest; mother of pearl champagne truffle, and ganache. Raffes Hotel, $26 - $57
Ice-Cream mooncakes
- Belgium chocolate or snowskin crusts. In flavours like cookies and cream, and macadamia. Haagen Dazs, $52
- Cempedak, durian: Swensens, $14.80
Halal mooncakes
- With lotus paste and durian paste. For our muslim mooncake lovers
Vegetarian Mooncakes
- With red/green bean and lotus paste
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Lantern History
Lantern festivals traditionally date back to 230 B.C., when Chinese began to decorate and display lanterns on streets to pray for peace and to celebrate the harvest. In China, such festivals can range from a few lantern-covered streets to entire cities strung with lanterns
Lantern History
Lantern festivals traditionally date back to 230 B.C., when Chinese began to decorate and display lanterns on streets to pray for peace and to celebrate the harvest. In China, such festivals can range from a few lantern-covered streets to entire cities strung with lanterns
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Here's something for those who wanna make their own lanterns~!
Make your own chinese lantern
Materials:
colored paper
string
markers, crayons, or paints
decorating things, like stickers or glitter
scissors
tape
a hole punch or a sharp pencil
Directions:
1. Take a sheet of colored paper. Draw small shapes, like stars, moons or circles on it. Make any shapes you like. Remember, the big piece of paper is the important one, not the shapes. Push the scissors through the middle of a shape and then cut it out.
Remember, just cut out the shapes. Don't cut anyplace else on the big paper.
2. Decorate the piece of paper with pictures or writing. Draw or write on the paper to decorate it. You can also glue things to the paper to make it pretty.
3. Get the tape. Roll the piece of paper to make a tube. Don't make it too tight.
Make sure that your decorations are on the outside to that everyone can see them.
Tape the ends of the paper to each other to make the tube.
4. Get the hole-punch and the string. Punch four holes at the top of the tube. Cut four pieces of string as long as the tube. Tie one piece of string to each hole. Tie the four strings together. Cut another piece of string and tie it to the other strings so you can hang up the lantern.
5. If you know any riddles, write one on a piece of paper. Tape it to your lantern.
Let your friends try to guess the answer. If you have some candy, you can give a piece to the friend who solves your riddle!