Mooncake Festival

I was lucky enough to be in Singapore during the Mooncake Festival. This is a major family celebration in Asia and everyone gives mooncakes as gifts in addition to buying them for personal consumption.Even the airlines were giving them to their passengers.

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 qui 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

There are many other legends about the Moon Festival.

To the Chinese, the round shape of mooncakes symbolizes family unity..

Today, Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing. Not to mention moon-cakes. While baked goods are a common feature at most Chinese celebrations, mooncakes are inextricably linked with the Moon festival.

For generations, Mooncakes have been made with sweet fillings of nuts, mashed red beans, lotus-seed paste or Chinese dates wrapped in a pastry, Sometimes a cooked egg yolk can be found in the middle of this rich tasting desert. Mooncakes can be compared to plum puddings and fruit cakes served during English holiday seasons. Haagen-Daz has even gotten into the act by introducing a line of ice cream mooncakes in Asian markets.