Lantern Festival Mooncake
The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, which usually falls around late September or early October. In 2010, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on Wednesday, 22 September 2010. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties across different countries.
The festival dates back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China’s Shang Dynasty. It was first called Zhongqiu Jie (literally “Mid-Autumn Festival”) in the Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival.
Lantern Festival Moon cake
Mooncakes are Chinese pastries traditionally eaten during the Lantern Festival. They are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. Mooncakes are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea.
Most mooncakes consist of a thin tender skin enveloping a sweet, dense filling. The mooncake may contain one or more whole salted egg yolks in its center to symbolize the full moon. Very rarely, mooncakes are also served steamed or fried. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a relatively thin (2-3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs.
Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for “longevity” or “harmony” as well as the name of the bakery and the filling in the moon cake. Imprints of the moon, the Chang’e woman on the moon, flowers, vines, or a rabbit (symbol of the moon) may surround the characters for additional decoration.
Mooncakes are considered a delicacy; production is labor-intensive and few people make them at home. Most mooncakes are bought at markets and bakeries.
Moon Festival Around The World
The Mid autumn mooncake festival, also known as the Moon Festival, Zhongqiu Festival, or in Chinese, Zhongqiujie (中秋節), is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Chinese descendants around the world. It is a legal holiday in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. The Moon Festival is also a widely celebrated festival in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and Indonesia. Please note that in Hong Kong, the official holiday date is the day after the festival, thus in 2010, the official holiday for mooncake festival in Hong Kong is on Thursday, 23 September 2010.
Source : http://sgholiday.com/2010/08/moon-cake-festival-2010/
