It’s Moon Cake Time!
Over the past few weeks, massive displays of small cakes covered in elaborate pastry designs have popped up in several shops and cafes across China. These pretty pastries are an Asian specialty called moon cakes, and appear every year in the run up to the Lunar Festival, which this year falls on 25th September. The Lunar Festival, also known as the Mid Autumn Festival or the Moon Cake Festival, is China’s Harvest Festival that has been compared to Thanksgiving Day in America. Traditionally it is a time for families to gather together and be reunited as a whole again, just as the full moon in the sky is whole.
The Lunar Festival was traditionally the third and last festival for the living in the Chinese calendar. It always occurs on the 15th of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, so in the Western calendar that is usually some time between mid September and mid October. It is a festival that has traditionally been celebrated by both the Han and the minority nationalities.
The Chinese custom of worshiping the moon goes as far back as the ancient Xia and Shang dynasties (2000BC – 1066 BC). Most of China’s historical palaces and classical gardens have a moon viewing pavilion for this reason. People drew a connection between the changes of the moon and of life, comparing the waxes and wanes of the moon to the human emotions of sorrow and joy due to parting and reunion. The Mid Autumn festival falls at the time in the lunar calendar when the moon is full. It came to symbolize a time of reunion when fruit and grain had just been harvested and food was abundant, so families came together under the full moon to celebrate.
The Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 AD) is said to be when the moon cake tradition began. People sent round moon cakes to their relatives during the Lunar Festival as an expression of their best wishes of family reunion. Celebrating the lunar festival became an important event in the social calendar. Families would get together and look up at the full silver moon or go sightseeing on lakes, enjoying the clear sky and each other’s company.
Modern Lunar Festival Celebrations
The Lunar Festival is still known as an important time for Chinese families to be together. It is also known as a romantic night for lovers, who might take a walk together under the clear sky. The custom of gazing at the silver full moon continues, especially to think of relatives who are far from home. Companies use the festival as a time to thank clients with boxes of moon cakes. As well as moon cakes, people also eat cooked taro because legend has it that this was the first food discovered at night. Recently holding a barbeque with family and friends to celebrate the festival has become popular too.
Moreover different parts of the country have their own particular festival customs. There are lots of different kinds of customs, including burning incense, planting mid Autumn trees, fire dragon dances and lighting lanterns on towers. In Hong Kong and Guangzhou, the Mid Autumn Festival is held in conjunction with the Lantern Festival, so celebrations include huge lantern shows. In Zhejiang province, people gather by the Qiantang River to watch the ebb of the tides coincide with the strong gravitational pull of the waxing and waning of the moon.
The dawn of the internet age has also seen a rise in popularity of sending online greetings for the Moon Cake Festival. However, this year people have been warned to exercise caution in sending these cards, because last year a wave of internet worms hit hard drives from virus infested moon cake greeting cards.
What’s in a Moon Cake?
Moon cakes are always designed in a round shape to look like the moon. They were traditionally made with four egg yolks to represent the four phases of the moon. For generations, moon cakes have been made with sweet fillings of nuts, mashed red beans, lotus seedpaste or Chinese dates wrapped in pastry. Some people say they are similar to the plum puddings and fruit cakes served in the UK.
These days moon cake fillings are made with anything from fruit and nuts to Chinese sausages. Other more recent developments in the moon cake flavor business include green tea moon cakes and snow skin moon cakes (made from cooked glutinous rice flour). Even Häagen Daz has got involved in the moon cake craze, by introducing their own line of ice cream moon cakes.
Moon cakes usually come in a box of thirteen. This is to symbolize the thirteen moons of a ‘complete year’: the twelve moons and one intercalary moon.
Moon Cake Festival Legends
If you glance at the design on the golden brown crust of a moon cake, or the moon cake box or poster, you can usually see images that refer to legends of the moon. Often there is a picture of legendary figures Chang E or the jade hare. There are lots of different versions of their stories. Not only do these stories feature in moon cake design, they are also told in families at the time of the Lunar Festival.
According to a story from the Xia dynasty, Chang E was the beautiful wife of the divine archer Hou Yi. He saved the world by shooting down nine of the ten suns that would otherwise have scorched the Earth. As a reward, he received the herb of immortality from a goddess. However, his wife knew that if he ate the herb, people would suffer eternally from his tyrannical rule, so she ate it herself instead. The herb made her float upwards to the moon. Hou Yi’s deep love for his wife was the only reason he did not shoot down the moon.
The legend of the jade rabbit who lives in a palace on the moon is also told during the Moon Cake Festival. It is a story about three fairy sages who came down to Earth and transformed themselves into old men begging for food from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and the monkey were able to offer the old men food. The rabbit had no food to give the old men but rather than turn them away, he offered himself as a meal, jumping into a fire to cook himself. The sages were amazed by the rabbit’s sacrifice and transformed him into a jade rabbit and let him live in the Moon Palace.
One of the reasons the Lunar Festival is celebrated by lovers throughout China is the role of the man in the moon in Chinese mythology. The Chinese have a saying: “Marriages are made in heaven and prepared on the moon”. Apparently it is the man in the moon that does the preparing! The old man keeps a record book with the name of every newborn baby. He knows everybody’s future partner and the decisions that he writes in his book are irreversible. Therefore, wannabe lovers go to the hills at the time of the Lunar Festival, and gaze at the moon hoping that their wish will be granted...
Furthermore, the humble moon cake is even said to have played an important role in Chinese history. In the Yuan dynasty (1280-1368 AD), China was ruled by Mongolian people. According to legend, the revolt against foreign rule was coordinated to take place on the night of the Moon Festival. In the run up to the festival, the rebel leaders ordered the making of special moon cakes, with messages about the attack baked into them. This is how they communicated with each other and successfully organized the attack and overthrow of the government. Nobody knows if this Chinese version of ancient Europe’s Trojan horse story is true or not.
Happy Moon Cake Day
If you are in China at the time of the mid Autumn festival this year, take advantage of the opportunity to be a part of one of China’s most exciting traditions. Have a barbeque, eat some moon cakes, gaze at the full moon in the sky and try not to feel too homesick for loved ones back home.
