To Moon or not to Moon…

“Legends aplenty surrounding the moon,
Of love and parting, ever a tale at noon.
Little round cakes of past revolution a boon,
The fifteenth day of the eighth month approaching soon”.

Hahahaaa! Make out what you may of the title (especially following my previous post!). It’s that time of the year again, when we see mooncakes being sold here, there and everywhere. The shapes and sizes of the mooncakes have varied over the years, with many ingenious ideas being shown. My younger sister brought home these two little piggies (which is kind of cute), and it was almost a shame to cut them up! Incidentally, I have been moderating the amount of mooncakes I am taking. More conscious of the calories involved. My favourite remains the "tau sa" type... hey!, I am a simple guy! :)

Definition of Moon:
Noun
1. The natural satellite of the Earth
2. Any object resembling a moon
3. The period between successive new moons (29.531 days)
4. The light of the moon
5. Any natural satellite of a planet

Verb
1. Have dreamlike musings or fantasies while awake
2. Be idle in a listless or dreamy way
3. Expose one's buttocks

Pstt.. incidentally, the name of my group (The Wicked Pitches)'s coming acapella concert in November is "Mostly, We Moon..." :P

So what are mooncakes? Traditional mooncakes are typically baked and consists of a thin tender skin enveloping a sweet and slightly oily filling. The moon cake can also contain single or multiple whole salted egg yolks in its center to symbolize the full moon. The saltiness of the yolk balances well with the sweet filling in the mooncake. Although rarely so, mooncakes can also be steamed or fried.

Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for "longevity" or "harmony" as well as the name of the bakery and filling in the moon cake. Imprints of a moon, a woman on the moon, flowers, vines, or a rabbit may surround the characters for additional decoration. Not sure if I took this "tau sa" mooncake picture character correctly or not (could be upside down) :)

And the legends? (with many variations to the tales)... adapted from http://www.regit.com/hongkong/festival/mooncake.htm

Moon Cake Festival: A 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 corresponds to the harvest festival as observed by Western cultures.

Contrary to what most people believe, this festival probably has less to do with harvest festivities than with the philosophically minded chinese of old. The union of man's spirit with nature in order to achieve perfect harmony was the fundamental canon of Taoism, so much so that contemplation of nature was a way of life.

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 duck eggs, and 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 a battle plan and developed a secret mooncake strategy to take a certain walled city held by the Mongol enemy. Liu dressed up as a Taoist priest and entered the besieged city bearing mooncakes. 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 his throne. Mooncake of course, became even more famous. Whether this sweet Chinese version of ancient Europe's "Trojan Horse" story is true, no one really knows.

The moon plays a significant part of this festival, with many legends surrounding it.

First lady on the moon: It is generally conceded that Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut, was the first man on moon (he made that historic landing in 1969). But that's not necessarily the truth to Chinese, who believe that the first person on the moon was a beautiful woman who lived during the Hsia dynasty (2205-1766BC).

This somewhat complicated moon-landing story goes like this: A woman, Chang-O, was married to the great General Hou-Yi of the Imperial Guard. General Hou was a skilled archer. One day, at the behest of the emperor, he shot down eight of nine suns that had mysteriously appeared in the heaven that morning. His marksmanship was richly rewarded by the emperor and he became very famous. However, the people feared that these suns would appear again to torture them and dry up the planet, so they prayed to the Goddess of Heaven (Wang Mu) to make General Hou immortal so that he could always defend the emperor, his progeny and the country. Their wish was granted and General Hou was given a Pill of Immortality.

Another version of this story notes that Chang-O, the wife of the Divine Archer, shot down nine of ten suns plaguing the world and received the Herb of Immortality as a reward.

Whoever the hero was, Chang-O grabbed the pill (or the herb) and fled to the moon. In some versions it is uncertain whether she ever actually got there, because Chinese operas always portray her as still dancing-flying towards the moon.

When Chang-O reached the moon, she found a tree under which there was a friendly hare. Because the air on the moon is cold, she began coughing and the Immortality Pill came out of her throat. She thought it would be good to pound the pill into small pieces and scatter them on Earth so that everyone could be immortal. So she ordered the hare to pound the pill, built a palace for herself and remained on the moon.

This helpful hare is referred to in Chinese mythology as the Jade Hare. Because of his and Chang-O's legendary importance, you will see - usually stamped on every mooncake, every mooncake box, and every Moon Cake Festival poster - images of Chang-O and sometimes the Jade Hare.

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, kept as a record book 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 and especially at the time of the Moon Festival. Everybody including children, hike up high mountains or hills or onto open beaches to view the moon in the hope that he will grant their wishes.

To celebrate this sighting of the moon, red plastic lanterns wrought in traditional styles and embellished with traditional motifs are prepared for the occasion. The lanterns are made in traditional shapes like rabbits, goldfish, carps, butterflies, lobsters and star-shaped fruits. Now, it is not uncommon to see lanterns in the shape of missiles, airplanes, rockets, ships and tanks. 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, wisdow and, of course, power.

Go eat your mooncake! :)