Mid Autumn Festival ( 6/10/2006)

There are many stories behind Chinese eating mooncakes and lighting lanterns on this day; Mid Autumn Festival, more commonly known as the Mooncake Festival.

Got one of the legends here...

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Is about the Chinese legend where ten suns rose together in the day and all the crop's, animal and people suffered due to the heat. A young Chinese man, Hou Yi, came and shot the suns with his arrow. All the nine suns died and one was left alive because the sun made an agreement, if Hou Yi spared him, he will rise and set as usual and provide ray and sunshine to earth. The people then cheered Hou Yi and made him the king of China. After becoming King, he became very arrogant and all his people suffered.Hou Yi even decided to take 2 pills to live forever. His wife, Chang Ee, afraid that the people will suffer forever, ate both the pills. Upon swollowing the pills, she became very light she eventually floated until she reached the moon. There, she lived a very lonely life. The Chinese made it a legend so that they can remember the sacrifice Chang Ee made. It is believed that on the 15th day of the 8th Lunar year, where the moon is the brightest, people could see Chang Ee in the moon alone. In order to keep her company, the Chinese cheered and ate mooncakes on this day while the children played and lit bright lanterns to show and entertain Chang Ee.

Mooncakes have another story. It started when a young man at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, named Zhu Yuan Zhang, rose against the Mongolian ruler that was cruel to the people of China. He sent messages to his army in a cake during the mooncake festival. With his messages,his army launch a revolt and eventually ended the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuan Zhang eventually became the king of China and started the Ming Dynasty. To remember his wisdom, the people of China made and ate mooncakes on the 15th Day of the 8th Lunar Calendar.

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So till this day, Chinese still ate mooncakes and lit lanterns on the 15th day of the 8th Lunar Calendar. I believe many do not know the reason behind the round/sweet mooncakes and the paper lanterns. Tho I really think all these are just legends, but I do believe that these stories should be told to our young ones so that the legend does not just disapear after a few generation. For my family, it's merely just another day to stay together, eat and be jolly!

Mommy as usual would prepare super yummy food.. after dinner, we had the festical's special delicacies, ie, mooncakes, pomelo, nin-kok, and baby yams. This year, instead of playing with candles and hanging lanterns in the garden, we sang karaoke from 11pm - 2am!!!! Superb Day :)

Top Left: Nin-kok, mooncakes, baby yam & pomelo

Top Right: Nin-kok (black: with shell, white: without shell)

Bottom Left: Jelly Mooncakes (curtosy of Daddy's student)

Bottom Right: Super sumpstious dinner!

Happy Mid Autumn !!