The History Of Moon Cakes And Moon 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 entire 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 ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, his wife found the pill, took it, and was banished to the moon as a result. Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival.

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

Of course, the most famous legend surrounding the Moon festival concerns its possible 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 perfect vehicle for hiding and passing along plans 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 plans were passed along in mooncakes over several years of Mid-Autumn festivals, but the basic idea is the same).

Today, Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing. Not to mention mooncakes. While baked goods are a common feature at most Chinese celebrations, mooncakes are inextricably linked with the Moon festival. One type of traditional mooncake is filled with lotus seed paste (see side photo). Roughly the size of a human palm, these mooncakes are quite filling, meant to be cut diagonally in quarters and passed around. This explains their rather steep price (around $5.00 in Canada). A word of caution: the salty yolk in the middle, representing the full moon, is an acquired taste.

More elaborate versions of mooncakes contain four egg yolks (representing the four phases of the moon). Besides lotus seed paste, other traditional fillings include red bean paste and black bean paste. Unfortunately for dieters, mooncakes are rather high in calories.

While in the past mooncakes took up to four weeks to make, automation has speeded up the process considerably. Today, mooncakes may be filled with everything from dates, nuts, and fruit to Chinese sausages. More exotic creations include green tea mooncakes, and ping pei or snowskin mooncakes, a Southeast Asian variation made with cooked glutinous rice flour. Haagen-Daz has even gotten into the act by introducing a line of ice cream mooncakes in Asian markets.

Given the difficulty of making them, most people prefer to purchase their mooncakes instead of making them. You'll find them at Asian bakeries beginning around mid-August. Meanwhile, for those with a culinary bent, here are several recipes.

What's Moon Cake?

During the Yuan dynasty (A.D.1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D.960-1280) were unhappy to live under foreign rule. They decided to coordinate a rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Inside each moon cake was a message with the outline of the attack. Because it's a Han (the main clan before the Mongolian took over) cake, the Mongolian people are not interested. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this legend.

Traditional moon cakes are round pastries filled with lotus seed paste with one to four egg yolks, weight about 180 grams each. The more egg yolks in the moon cake, the more expensive it is and more prestigious when present them as presents to relatives. You can buy mooncake one by one though shops always sell their mooncakes in a tin box of 4.

Modern moon cakes - modern bakers are trying to be different. In Hong Kong, you can find dozens varieties of moon cake with nuts or ham, with white lotus seed paste, red bean paste, green bean paste, fruit or coffee flavor. About 10 years ago, a baker called Tai Pan introduced a new white stretchy pastry for their moon cake. They called it "Snowy moon cake" which is very different from the traditional baked, slightly crumbly pastry. It's certainly more popular with the younger generation, though the older generation will look at it and say, "Not traditional!". Then we have chocolate mooncakes, ice cream mooncakes from Haagen Dazs.

Packaging - Besides new ingredients in the moon cakes, you have more choices of sizes and packaging these days. There are mini-mooncakes for those who would like to watch their weight but still want to be traditional and have a moon cake on the Mid-Autumn Festival day. Mini-moon-cake often comes in a tin box or cardboard box of 6 or 8. Other layout like "7-star around the moon" which means 7 mini or full size moon cakes surrounding a standard full size moon cake in the middle in a round tin. It's ideal as gift for your mother-in-law but it costs a lot more (8 mooncakes!)

In 2008, the traditional moon-cake-bakers challenge the modern bakers with new packagings. Nice heavy wooden box with fancy carving decoration or various cartoon character like Thomas the Tank Engine or Doraemon theme boxes with games/toys are available.