Hello everyone! Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! In this post, I will introduce the most representative food of this festival--Mooncake.
What is mooncake?
Mooncakes are Chinese pastries or desserts that are eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Therefore, I will also mention the history of the Mid-Autumn Festival in this part as well.
Mid-Autumn Festival was a “harvest festival,” just like Thanksgiving, where people celebrate and appreciate the moon together. Mooncake is as essential to Mid-Autumn Festival as turkeys are to Thanksgiving.
In Zhou Dynasty (1045 – 221 BC), Chinese emperors thought highly of the moon in autumn, because this season means “harvest”. Therefore, they prayed to the moon for the harvest the next year.
As time went by, this practice became more and more popular. In the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD), appreciating the moon became popular among the upper class.
The tradition of eating mooncakes during the festival began in the Yuan Dynasty (1279 – 1368), a dynasty ruled by the Mongols. There is an interesting folk tale: Messages to rebel against the Mongols were passed around in mooncakes, which helped they succeeded in overthrowing Mongolian’s government.
This festival and tradition improved with times, the Mid-Autumn Festival became a public holiday in China in 2008. Nowadays, people give mooncake as a gift and enjoy the moon together to celebrate this historic festival.
There are different types of mooncakes, you can see this picture below. They are made of various ingredients as well. For instance, walnut kernels, almonds, sesame seeds, melon seeds, hawthorn, red beans, white lotus paste, solid salted egg yolk, pork…
Here is a mooncake-making video:
I made mooncake by myself in this summer holiday, it was my first try. I gave it to my grandparents and got their praise!
Which mooncake do you want to have a try? If you want to know more about mooncake, the Mid-Autumn Festival or other information about China, you can leave a comment below!