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Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival or Mooncake Festival

18 September 2013 by Eileen

Mid-Autumn Festival is also know as Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival in Singapore. For every festival, there are lanterns hanging across the street and children showing off their beautiful lanterns. I still remember I used to hold a paper folded red lantern and sometimes it would catch fire if I swing it around. Now the lantern are battery operated so it will be safe for children. Each year, the lanterns are getting more and more fanciful.

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival or Mooncake Festival

For those of you who do not know the background to this festival, there are two versions of the original stories:

Some say Hou Yi shot down nine of the suns and left only one to provide light. He received a magic potion of immortality which he refused to take as he wanted to be with Chang Er. One day, Feng Meng forced Chang Er to give up the potion. She swallowed it and flew to the moon. Hou Yi came back home and found out. So every 15th day of the Eighth month of the Chinese calendar the day she flew off and became the Moon Goddess of Immortality, he put out fruits and cakes for her.

Others say it is Chang Er who stole the magic potion to prevent her evil husband King Hou yi from becoming immortal. She took the portion and fled to the moon.

The latter story was the one I was brought up with.

Now I would like to tell you more about mooncake. Again there are two versions of how mooncake came along. They say it is an offering to Chang Er as she is the Moon Goddess of Immortality. Others say it is a folk tale about the overthrow of Mongol rule facilitated by messages smuggled in moon cakes.  A secret message hidden inside the cake and once the messages were read, they were destroyed by eating the cake.

Making a mooncake is not very easy. I wanted to make some but I could not find the right ingredients in the Chinese supermarket so I bought a tin of ready-made mooncake. This is the double yolk lotus seed mooncake. The yolk is from salted duck eggs.  I normally save it for Mr C.  Yuck! I hate the salted yolk. The filling comes in various types. I personally prefer lotus seed to red bean paste as they are lighter in flavour. I love the skin as it is like a firm crust. They are always beautifully baked. If you see one in the UK, go and give it a try!  They are delicious!

These are a few photos I would like to share with you.

This is the biggest mooncake in the Philippines, Eng Bee Tin Binondo, Manila.  My friend B kindly shared her personal photo on my blog.

largest mooncake

The following picture was shared by a Singapore friend Mrs D.  Her son is carrying an Angry Bird lantern.

Angry Bird Lantern

This is in one of the hotel kitchens where they make mooncake. Credit to Mr BG.
making mooncake
mooncake in tray
different type of mooncake

mooncake

These are from my lovely friend ST collections:

xiao ding tang Lantern
chang er lantern
flower lantern
fish lantern
dinosaurs lantern
lotus mooncake
Deep Fried Thousand Layers Yam mooncake
durian mooncake

Thanks to all who shared. Do you have any photos you would like me to share?  Contact me!

Related

Filed Under: Chinese Festivals Tagged With: Lantern, mooncake, Singapore

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Comments

  1. Emily says

    17 January 2014 at 11:06 pm

    I’d never seen mooncakes before but they look so attractive. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Emma Smith says

    16 January 2014 at 10:31 pm

    I’ve never seen mooncakes before. Thanks for sharing.

  3. MsXpat says

    19 September 2013 at 2:33 pm

    Thanks! I wish I knew about it yesterday I was in town then. New Malden will shops will have to do for today.

  4. Eileen Teo says

    19 September 2013 at 2:32 pm

    If you go to London chinatown, you get more variety to choose from.

  5. MsXpat says

    19 September 2013 at 1:59 pm

    I’m a hopeless romantic I prefer the first story :0) And I love moon cakes will get hubby to hunt for the store bought ones for us to enjoy :0)

  6. Eileen Teo says

    19 September 2013 at 8:32 am

    They delicious too. They only lasts for a while.

  7. mummyoftwo says

    19 September 2013 at 7:56 am

    I’ve never heard of this. The mooncake looks interesting!

  8. eehbahmum says

    19 September 2013 at 6:47 am

    I love finding out about traditions – especially ones based around cake!

Trackbacks

  1. Amoy Mid-Autumn Recipe - ET Speaks From Home says:
    7 December 2021 at 8:21 pm

    […] Tomorrow will be the Mid-Autumn festival where Chinese celebrate the fifteenth day of the eight lunar month – the Mooncake Festival. Last year, I explained the story behind this festival which you can read more here. […]

  2. Celebrating Chinese Festivals - ET Speaks From Home says:
    25 March 2021 at 2:07 pm

    […] are engaging and filled with colourful water paint illustrations. They also include recipes like moon cakes, sweet dumplings, zongzi etc. and the instructions on how to make these. They do have poems but the […]

  3. Over The Moon is on Netflix & Cinema - ET Speaks From Home says:
    29 October 2020 at 3:53 pm

    […] Do check out the film in cinemas or you can catch it on Netflix if you are a subscriber! You won’t be disappointed learning more about Chinese culture! You can also read my blog post here: https://etspeaksfromhome.co.uk/2013/09/chinese-mid-autumn-festival-or-mooncake-festival.html […]

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Hello!

Welcome to ET Speaks From Home!
I'm Eileen, a proud mum of two teenagers (aged 17 and 16), my daughter is living with visual impairment. Since launching this blog in May 2012, we’ve continued to grow and evolve, sharing our family’s journey and passions.

I love cooking, crafting, DIY projects, writing about Chinese culture, and creating YouTube reviews.

**Achievements & Recognition:**

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