I have procrastinate for 3 days to write this post...
Some call it:
Mid Autumn Festival, Moon Cake Festival, Lantern Festival
I have been wondering these few days, why do we celebrate this festival and what do moon cakes represent in this festival so i did some research bout this festival. and I find i very interesting to know the purpose of this festival.
I tried reading a lot of article bout this and even ask friends bout the story behind this.
Here we go...
My Version of The Legend of The Mid Autumn Festival:
So this famous archer Hou Yi climb up this Quan Lun Mountain and pull his bow with all his might and shoot down 9 of the Suns, remaining 1 Sun is left for the earth for light and heat. By doing this, the citizens respect and worship him for saving the world, but Emperor Jade was really angry because Hou Yi killed 9 of his Sons so he send him to earth and he couldn't be immortal anymore. Eventually he got married with this beautiful lady filled with serenity named Chang Er.
Chang Er
But Hou Yi mm se tak to leave his beloved wife on earth alone so he gave this pills to his wife Chang Er to keep. Chang Er kept this pills in her dressing table's drawer, and at the same time Hou Yi's student Fong Mong discover this secret and he greed to have the pills to become immortal so he has this secret plan.
3 days later, Hou Yi went for training and ask Fong Mong to go with him, but Fong Mong berpura-pura sakit perut so Hou Yi went training alone leaving his beloved wife, Chang Er behind in her room.
When Hou Yi has left the town, Fong Mong immediatly took his sword and head to Chang Er's room. He threaten Chang Er to give out the pills or else he will kill her. Chang Er knows that he cant fight Fong Mong so in force she ate the pills and floated up to "heaven". Chang Er misses her husband dearly so she flew to the moon to be close to people.
At the evening, Hou Yi came back from his training and his maid told him what had happen to his wife Chang Er. He took up his sword and head to hunt for Fong Mong and killed him. He was so angry and frustrated because his beloved wife had left him and he will never see her again. He shouted "Chang Er Chang Er, my beloved wife where are you?" and suddenly he realize that he moon is very pleasant towards him and there is a shadow of Chang Er there.
Hou Yi tried to chase the moon but he failed. He walked 3 steps forward, the moon back off 3 steps, but when he back off 3 steps the moon come forward 3 steps. So no matter what he do, he cant can't go near the moon.
Hou Yi send people to a garden which Chang Er likes to go to and put flowers, peaches and fresh fruits to show his love to her. The day that Chang Er left Hou Yi was 14 August in the Chinese calender. The citizen heard about this story and started worshiping Chang Er in the moon on this date to get blessing.
The Jade Hare
I notice there is a bunny with Chang Er in the moon. There is a story bout how this bunny turn into a Jade Hare, the story is like this:
One day, three immortals who were living in the heaven came to the earth. They asked a fox, a monkey and a rabbit to find some food for them respectively. The fox and the monkey both found something for the three immortals while the rabbit got nothing. The rabbit felt very sorry for the three immortals. Finally, he jumped into the fire and said to the three immortals "eat me, please!" the three immortal were deep moved by the rabbit. They decided to entitle the rabbit a reputation of "Jade Rabbit" and let him accompany Chang Er in the Moon Palace.
So apparently this bunny pounds medicine, together with the lady, Chang Er, for the gods. Others say that the Jade Rabbit is a shape, assumed by Chang Er herself. You may find that the dark areas to the top of the full moon may be construed as the figure of a rabbit.
Most mooncakes consist of a thin tender skin enveloping a sweet, dense filling. The mooncake may contain one or more whole salted egg yolks in its center to symbolize the full moon.
Long long time ago, Emperor Jade had 10 Sons, and they transform into 10 Suns who give light to the earth one by one everyday, but because they were too playful, they wanna play together everyday so they cause the earth to crack, dry up, humans, animals and plants die because of the heat of 10 Suns. So Emperor Jade ask this famous archer, Hou Yi to teach them a lesson so that they will be more discipline and follow the rules.
Hou Yi the Archer
Hou Yi the Archer
Chang Er
Chang Er and Hou Yi
Hou Yi live his life with Chang Er and a lot of people admire them and wants to become his student. He had one student named Fong Mong, he is a bad hearted man who is jealous of his master Hou Yi. One day Hou Yi again climbed up this Quan Lun Mountain to train and tersepah with the Queen Mother of West aka Wong Mou Leung Leung and she gave Hou Yi this Anti-Mati Pills, and he can become immortal after eating this pills.But Hou Yi mm se tak to leave his beloved wife on earth alone so he gave this pills to his wife Chang Er to keep. Chang Er kept this pills in her dressing table's drawer, and at the same time Hou Yi's student Fong Mong discover this secret and he greed to have the pills to become immortal so he has this secret plan.
3 days later, Hou Yi went for training and ask Fong Mong to go with him, but Fong Mong berpura-pura sakit perut so Hou Yi went training alone leaving his beloved wife, Chang Er behind in her room.
When Hou Yi has left the town, Fong Mong immediatly took his sword and head to Chang Er's room. He threaten Chang Er to give out the pills or else he will kill her. Chang Er knows that he cant fight Fong Mong so in force she ate the pills and floated up to "heaven". Chang Er misses her husband dearly so she flew to the moon to be close to people.
At the evening, Hou Yi came back from his training and his maid told him what had happen to his wife Chang Er. He took up his sword and head to hunt for Fong Mong and killed him. He was so angry and frustrated because his beloved wife had left him and he will never see her again. He shouted "Chang Er Chang Er, my beloved wife where are you?" and suddenly he realize that he moon is very pleasant towards him and there is a shadow of Chang Er there.
Hou Yi tried to chase the moon but he failed. He walked 3 steps forward, the moon back off 3 steps, but when he back off 3 steps the moon come forward 3 steps. So no matter what he do, he cant can't go near the moon.
Hou Yi send people to a garden which Chang Er likes to go to and put flowers, peaches and fresh fruits to show his love to her. The day that Chang Er left Hou Yi was 14 August in the Chinese calender. The citizen heard about this story and started worshiping Chang Er in the moon on this date to get blessing.
This Story is direct translate by my friend through the phone from mandarin to Cantonese and I translate it to English so there are a lot of kecacatan.
The Jade Hare
I notice there is a bunny with Chang Er in the moon. There is a story bout how this bunny turn into a Jade Hare, the story is like this:
One day, three immortals who were living in the heaven came to the earth. They asked a fox, a monkey and a rabbit to find some food for them respectively. The fox and the monkey both found something for the three immortals while the rabbit got nothing. The rabbit felt very sorry for the three immortals. Finally, he jumped into the fire and said to the three immortals "eat me, please!" the three immortal were deep moved by the rabbit. They decided to entitle the rabbit a reputation of "Jade Rabbit" and let him accompany Chang Er in the Moon Palace.
So apparently this bunny pounds medicine, together with the lady, Chang Er, for the gods. Others say that the Jade Rabbit is a shape, assumed by Chang Er herself. You may find that the dark areas to the top of the full moon may be construed as the figure of a rabbit.
But where does Moon Cake comes from???
There is a folk tale about the overthrow of mongol rule facilitated by messages smuggled in moon cakes.
Mooncakes were used as a medium by the Ming revolutionaries effort to secretly distribute letters in order to overthrow the Mongolian rulers of China. The idea is said to be conceived by Zhu YuanZhang, who circulated a rumor that a deadly plague was spreading and the only way to prevent it was to eat special mooncakes. This prompted the quick distribution of mooncakes, which were used to hide a secret message coordinating the Han Chinese revolt on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. and his advisor Liu Bowen
Another method of hiding the message was printed in the surface of mooncakes as a simple puzzle or mosaic. In order to read the encrypted message, each of the four mooncakes packaged together must be cut into four parts each. The 16 pieces of mooncake, must then be pieced together in such a fashion that the secret messages can be read. The pieces of mooncake are then eaten to destroy the message
Most mooncakes consist of a thin tender skin enveloping a sweet, dense filling. The mooncake may contain one or more whole salted egg yolks in its center to symbolize the full moon.
So here are some moon cakes which I've found so fascinating in this website:
Credits to: http://sparklette.net/food/mooncakes/
Traditional Moon cakes
Credits to: http://sparklette.net/food/mooncakes/
Traditional Moon cakes
Cheese Flavour lolz
Even Star Bucks created its own moon cake XD
Jojo will like the Hello Kitty Shape moon cake hor?
Jie's fav red bea...
Imagine redbean jelly with green tea.
mmm sedap...
Jie's fav red bea...
Imagine redbean jelly with green tea.
mmm sedap...
So comel sial....
Godiva chocolate also come out in mooncake shape...
Those are not soap bar... All are moon cake lai de...
Those are not soap bar... All are moon cake lai de...
Malat the black moon cake reminds me of the black bread u brought back last time^^
Orh cantik nya moon cake...
So sampai di sini dulu...
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2009^^
Eventhou sudah lepas =.=
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