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What's Up with Moon Cakes?

2017-08-19 ShanghaiWOWeng


Moon Cakes are the most popular food eaten by Chinese during Mid-Autumn Festival. And before we get into cakes, we should probably explain the holiday… The Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as ‘Golden Week’ and ‘Moon Festival’) is a yearly Chinese celebration of the moon.

 

How did it start?

A long, long, lonnngggg time ago, Chinese people noticed that the movement of the moon seems to correlate with changes of the seasons and agricultural production. To express their gratitude to the moon and celebrate their harvest, they offered a sacrifice to the moon on autumn days. This custom has been traced back to the Zhou Dynasty (1046 - 256 BC).

 

When is it?



First you should know that it’s not the same date every year. The holiday adheres to the Chinese lunar calendar. According to this, the event takes place each year on the 15th day of the 8th month.

 

So when is it this year?


Oct 4th is the exact day for 2017, but the entire week will be a holiday (Oct. 1 - 7).

 

How should I celebrate?



That’s up to you, expats in China don’t really do anything except enjoy some time off, maybe take a trip outside of the city. Chinese people don’t quite go out of their way to travel home as they do for CNY. Basically you should eat a moon cake and look at the moon.

 

So what are moon cakes?



Aha, so we made it to the burning question, what are these things. The Moon Cake is the special food of Mid-Autumn Festival. On that day, people sacrifice moon cakes to the moon as an offering and eat them for celebration. Moon cakes come in various flavors according to the region. The moon cakes are round, symbolizing the reunion of a family, so it is easy to understand how the eating of moon cakes under the round moon can evoke longing for distant relatives and friends. Nowadays, people present moon cakes to relatives and friends to demonstrate that they wish them a long and happy life.


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