Celebrate Tuesday's full moon with Chinese mooncakes: Jasmine Mangalaseril
Mooncakes are traditionally shared with friends and family during the mid-Autumn festival
In the Chinese lunar calendar, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth month. It's when the full moon appears, usually around the time of autumnal equinox.
For those who follow the Gregorian calendar, the festival falls mid-September to early October. This year it will be on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
"It's more like Thanksgiving in Western culture," said Yan Li, who's active in Waterloo region's Chinese community.
"Our family members gather together and just celebrate and worship the moon. So, the Mid-Autumn Festival, we also call the Moon Festival."
While families share a meal indoors, for many, the real celebration is outside.
When they see the low-hanging moon they thank the Moon Goddess, Chang'e, for the harvest as they recite poems and light candles. As they share mooncakes, they exchange good wishes. Because of this, the festival is also called the Mooncake Festival.
According to Li, Chang'e was once a beautiful woman who drank the elixir of life and flew to the moon. In some versions of the story, because the harvest moon shone brighter, her husband felt that she was watching over him. To honour her he placed her favourite foods outside for her to see.
Dinner as diverse as the people
China is diverse with 56 official ethnicities living across a country almost as large as Canada. Because of this, Festival dinner traditions are as varied as the local harvests and traditions, including:
- Osmanthus Duck in Nanjing is braised, pickled, and dried duck simmered in a ginger, onion, and star anise broth, flavoured with osmanthus flowers.
- Water caltrops are in season in Hong Kong, with nuts that taste somewhat like roast chestnuts. They bring prosperity and cleverness.
- Since pomelos are believed to be Chang'e's favourite fruit, in Meizhou they're thought to bring blessings.
Giving thanks for the harvest
When Li's mother, Qirui Zhang, was a girl in Yunnan Province in the 1950s, the village would throw a Mooncake Festival celebration. Local crops like peanuts, pears, pomegranates and yellow string beans were laid on an outdoor harvest table. People would recite poems and light candles before a large mooncake was brought out.
"They will make huge round mooncake exactly identical to the moon," said Zhang, as interpreted by Li.
"The whole village will come to share because then we can cut it off in pieces. Everyone has a little piece, then they feel like they've been blessed."
Mooncakes are a dense pastry that can be chewy, flaky, short crust-like or crumbly and can fit in your palm. Along with the traditional round shape, there are rectangular and square ones. Homemade ones can be formed by hand or shaped in ornate mooncake moulds.
Li explained the traditional round mooncake is important.
"We make the shape of the moon so the goddess will know that when we make the moon [shape] we'll kind of worship her."
Regional variations
While manufacturers turn out mooncakes filled with a plethora of fillings, including strawberry, chocolate or peanuts, originally, they were a solid pastry.
There are a dozen regional styles, including:
- Suzhou-style: flaky pastry with sweet, floral, or salty fillings.
- Cantonese-style: soft with sweet or salty fillings including lotus seed paste, coconut paste, egg yolks, or meat.
- Chaoshan-style: crisp and flaky and a seafood filling is common.
- Beijing-style: crispy pastry with a sweet filling.
Yunnan style mooncakes
While Zhang visits her family she passes on traditions including making mooncakes.
For plain ones, that are like shortbread biscuits, she mixes steamed flour with oil, water and brown sugar. She shapes the cakes in moulds and bakes them.
She also makes Yunnan's ham mooncakes. They are flaky, handmade pincushion-like cakes, filled with cured ham, walnuts, and brown sugar. Before baking, they're topped with sesame seeds and loose leaf tea.
"She's trying to keep the traditions," said Li. "So, every time she does something, she just copies from her memory, and then does the celebration. She's so glad that the grandchildren, even though they were born here, they can still enjoy the moment."
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