Eversince my friend introduced me to mooncakes, I ABSOLUTELY love them!
So this week I bought a 2 boxes which I swapped around to give me this combination:
- 2 green tea paste 2 yolks
- 1 taro paste 2 yolks
- 1 white lotus seed paste 2 yolks

While munching on my mooncake I've realised I've never really known why around this time of year Chinese (what I assumed) people ate mooncakes. To be honest, I don't know much of my own korean heritage and from memory I've known around this time of year we celebrate something but we don't have mooncakes.

So a quick wikipedia search tells me:

Mooncakes are chinese pastries traditionally eating during the Mid-Autumn Festival. This festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month in the chinese calendar. On this day, the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest. Farmers also celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival, one of the three most important Chinese festivals. As well as eating mooncakes, there are other cultural and regional activities held on this day.

Mooncakes can be round or rectangular, 10 cm in diameter and about 4-5cm thick. The filling inside is usually thick and made from lotus seed paste but there are other variations such as sweet bean, taro, green tea, mixed nuts, durian etc. The outside is covered in a thin crust. Mooncakes are quick heavy and dense and are usually eaten in small wedges. Mooncakes also contain egg yolks in them to symbolize the full moon.

The traditional mooncakes are imprinted with the chinese characters for longevity or harmony as well as the name of the bakery and the type of filling. For decoration purposes, you may also find imprints of the moon, flowers, vines, rabbits (symbol of the moon) and Chang'e on the moon (from a story of the Mid-Autumn festival)

Mooncakes are considered a delicacy where production is labour-intensive and few people make them at home. Mooncakes can be bought in Asian markets and bakeries ranging from around $10 to $50.

Mooncakes are also associated as being used as a medium to secretly distribute letters by the Ming revolutionaries to overthrow the Mongolian rulers of China during the Yuan dynasty. This idea has been said to be conceived by Zhu Yuanzhang and his advisor who spread a rumour that a deadly plague was spreading and the only cure was to eat mooncakes. The quick distribution of mooncakes coordinated the Han chinese revolt on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Another method of hiding the message was printed in the surface of mooncakes as a simple puzzle of mosiac. To read the message, each of the 4 mooncakes packaged together are cut into 4 parts and the 16 pieces must be placed together so the message could be read- like a puzzle.

So that's what I learnt from Wikipedia.
Enjoy your mooncakes =)


Pictured above: White lotus seed paste with 2 yolks.