[Nesacat]

Happy Moon Cake Festival.

Today October 6 is the day we celebrate the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival (Chung Chiu), the third major festival of the Chinese calendar, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month.

This festival is also known as the Moon Cake Festival because a special kind of sweet cake (yueh ping) prepared in the shape of the moon and filled with sesame seeds, ground lotus seeds and salted duck egg yolks is served as a traditional Chung Chiu delicacy.

Nobody actually knows when the custom of eating moon cake to celebrate the Moon Festival began, but one belief traces its origin to the 14th Century. At the time, China was in revolt against the Mongols. Chu Yuen-chang, and his senior deputy, Liu Po-wen, discussed battle plans and developed a secret moon cake strategy to take a certain walled city held by the Mongols. Liu dressed up as a Taoist priest and entered the besieged city bearing moon cakes. He distributed these to the city's populace. When the time for the year's Chung Chiu festival arrived, people opened their cakes and found hidden messages advising them to coordinate their uprising with the troops outside. Thus, the emperor-to-be ingeniously took the city and the throne.

Hou Yì, the Archer; Chang'e, the mythical Moon Goddess of Immortality: Hou Yì was an immortal, while Chang'e was a beautiful young girl, working in the Jade Emperor's (Emperor of Heaven) Palace as the attendant to the Queen Mother of The West (wife of the Jade Emperor), before her marriage.

One day, Yì aroused the jealousy of the other immortals, who then slandered him before the Jade Emperor. Yì and his wife, Chang'e, were subsequently banished from heaven, and forced to live by hunting on earth. He became a famous archer.

Now at this time, there were 10 suns that took turns to circle the earth — one every 10 days. One day, all 10 of the suns circled together, causing the earth to scorch. Emperor Yao, the Emperor of China, commanded Yì to kill all but one of the suns. Upon the completion of his task, the Emperor rewarded Yì with a pill, the elixir of life, and advised him: "Make no haste to swallow this pill, but first prepare yourself with prayer and fasting for a year".



Yì took the pill home and hid it under a rafter, while he began healing his spirit. In the midst of this, Yì was summoned again by the emperor. While he was gone, Chang'e noticed a white beam of light beckoning from the rafter and discovered the pill, which she swallowed. Immediately, she found that she could fly. Just at that moment, Yì returned home, and realising what had happened, began to reprimand her. Chang'e flew out the window into the sky.


With bow in hand, Yì sped after her, and the pursuit continued halfway across the heavens. Finally, Yì had to return to the Earth because of the force of the wind. Chang'e reached the moon, and breathless, she coughed. Part of the pill fell out from her mouth. Now, the hare was already on the moon, and Chang'e commanded the animal to make a pill from it, so that she could return to earth to her husband.


As of today, the hare is still pounding. As for Yì, he built himself a palace in the sun as "Yang" (the male principle), while Chang'e is "Yin" (the female principle). Once a year, on the 15th day of the full moon, Yì visits his wife. That is why the moon is full and beautiful on that night.



This description appears in written form in two Western Han dynasty (206 BCE - 24CE) collections; Shanhaijing (Classic of the Mountains and Seas, a book of travels and tales), and Huainanzi (scientific, historical and philosophical articles, named for the Prince of Huai).

The old man on the moon: There is a saying in Chinese that marriages are made in heaven and prepared on the moon. The man who does the preparing is the old man of the moon (Yueh Lao Yeh). This old man, it is said, keeps a record with all the names of newborn babies. He is the one heavenly person who knows everyone's future partners, and nobody can fight the decisions written down in his book. He is one reason why the moon is so important in Chinese mythology.

To celebrate the full moon, plastic lanterns wrought in traditional styles and embellished with traditional motifs are prepared for the occasion.

The lantern are made in such traditional shapes are rabbits, goldfish, carps, butterflies, lobsters and star-shaped fruits. In Chinese mythology, the butterfly is the symbol of longevity and the lobster the symbol of mirth. Star-shaped fruit is the seasonal fruit in the autumn, and the crab is an old symbol of the Emperor, personifying strength, courage, wisdom and power.

I've got several boxes of moon cakes and if anyone would like one I could send it along in the post. I have been assured that they travel very well indeed.