中秋節

the moonlady depicted in ancient paintings	a modern & commercial interpretation of the moonlady (she now sells and delivers mooncakes)

LEGEND OF THE MOON LADY

The legend of the "Lady Living in the Moon" goes back to ancient Chinese times from as early as 221 BC Zhou Dynasty.  It was told that at one time there were 10 suns in the sky, each of them taking the turn of shining every 10 days.  Then there will be the time when all 10 suns appeared together causing damage to the earth.  The Emperor ordered an archer to shoot the extra ones down.  Hou Yi, the noble archer, shot 9 down.  As a reward, the goddess of the western heaven awarded an elixir to would make him immortal. 

The evil Peng Meng, another archer, tried to wrestle this elixir away from Hou Yi's wife, (while Hou Yi was away). Rather than let an evil man take this elixir away and be immortally evil, Chang'e the wife quickly swallowed the elixir and became immortal.  She flew to the moon and would hence appear only one day every year - on the 15th day of the 8th month on the Lunar Calendar, when the moon would be full, shining the brightest in the year.  Millions of Chinese would go to Moon viewing pavilions gazing at the heavens.  The Festival is celebrated by feasting on moon cakes, retelling of the legend in dance form and moon gazing.

Moon Cake Festival - the 1368 Chinese rebellion against Mongol Rule.
When Chinese celebrate the Moon Cake Festival, they are not simply celebrating the legend, but also the history of its liberation from the oppressive Mongol Rule  during the 13th century.   Because the Mongols do not celebrate the Moon Cake Festival, the Chinese rebels were able to plot a rebellion by inserting a secret note into moon cakes distributed to every household with the instruction for a rebellion.  The peasants promptly took up arms at the agreed time and successfully overturned Mongol rule.


WESTERN MOON CAKES

Western corporations are quick to capitalize on the Asian market by introducing western versions of the moon cake.  Now we have moon cakes in the form of Nokia cell phones.  Hagen Daaz has a moon cake variation.  Raffles Hotel in Singapore introduced several kinds of moon cakes in beautiful decorative Shanghai style tins depicting the Moon Lady.   Not to be left out, Starbucks also has its own version of moon cake.

FEASTING ON MOON CAKES

Hagen Daaz Moon Cake Ice Cream	Raffles Assorted tins of moon cakes.

Traditionally, moon cakes are made with fillings of sweet bean paste. nuts, dates, lotus seed paste or  fruit.  Most importantly, there is always the salty yellow yolk in the middle made with 4 egg yolks to depict the four phases of the moon.  Chinese would celebrate with traditional foods such as boiled peanuts, slices of taro, rice gruel, fish, noodles and the must-have moon cakes. 

	MOON GAZING All throughout China, there are moon viewing pavilions where people can come and enjoy looking into the heaven and gaze at the moon.
	DANCING Celebration of dancing does not mean disco-dancing.  It is the dance retelling of the legend plus other traditional dances including dragon or lion dance.

Here is an animation from You Tube on the Legend behind the Moon Lady