Cakes and Cookies Specials: Festival Mooncake

Friday, October 02, 2009

Festival Mooncake

Moon Festival - Chinese Mooncake

Festival Mooncake, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival (Chung Chiu) or Lantern Festival or Moon Festival is the third major festival of the Chinese calendar. It is celebrated on the 15^th day of the eighth month and is one of the three most important festivals. The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is one of the most celebrated Chinese holidays where Chinese families celebrate the end of the harvest season with a big feast.

This year, the Chinese mooncake festival falls on October 3^rd, 2009. On this day, the moon is full and round and this is when the Chinese people gather to view the moon. The round shape signifies family reunion. Sons and daughters will bring their family members back to their parents' house for a reunion. Sometimes people who have already settled overseas will come back to visit their parents on that day. Where possible, all the family members will get together.

For the Moon Festival, mooncake foods are prevalent. Mooncakes are a kind of Chinese delicacy which friends and relatives send to each other as a way of giving thanks. A relatively thin crust with heavy and dense filling that is usually made from lotus seed paste, these mooncakes come in various varieties. Some may contain yolks from salted duck eggs, others may boast of nuts, yet others may have ham. The range is endless due to the popularity of mooncakes and the creativity of the manufacturers.

The sinful high cholesterol mooncakes are usually eaten in small wedges and accompanies by Chinese tea. Today there are the traditional baked mooncakes, the snowskin mooncakes, the mooncakes with crispy pastry and so on.

Every year, on the mid-autumn festival, children light lanterns and carry them around.

Lanterns

And more lanterns

Here are some pictures of mooncakes and you can see the great varieties as well as each high end establishment coming up with various ways of packing these mooncakes.

Crispy skin mooncake