Change E

The Moon Festival is about family reunion and celebration.
On the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, the moon is round and the Chinese people mark the Moon Festival. The exact date in the Western calendar changes from year to year but it is approximately in September. This year it was September 21, 2002.

On the night of the festival, families gather to relax, give thanks, celebrate family unity and view the moon. A banquet is typically held at midnight. Having a picnic while watching the moon is considered very romantic for young couples.

The Legend
A beautiful woman named Chang E mistakenly took a magic pill, become a fairy, and was taken to the moon, unable to return to earth. Her husband, Houyi cried over the eternal separation. The Mother God of Heaven was moved by Houyi, and cast a shadow of Chang E's dancing on the moon. Houyi and others were so pleased with Change E's dancing that they started to celebrate, asking for Chang E's blessing.

Mooncakes

The entire family enjoyed traditional mooncakes this year, thanks to thoughtful Chinese friends who sent us delicious cakes. Ours were made of lotus paste and red bean paste, along with sugar and other ingredients. Linzhi really liked hers!

Traditional Mooncakes are made of flaked pastry, they often have one or more salted duck egg yolks in the center to represent the moon and sweet fillings of red bean paste, lotus seed paste, yellow bean paste, coconut, black bean paste.

Mooncakes are stamped with designs of the Moon Lady, the Jade Rabbit, a three-legged toad, or groves of cinnamon trees. Each bakery also has its own hand-carved wooden molds with Chinese characters indicating the type of filling and the name of the bakery. The dough for the skin is rolled out and pressed into the mold, then filled and baked. A red dot indicates a yolk is inside.

Our Mooncakes resembled the cakes pictured here.