Did You Eat Moon Cake?

Did you eat moon cake?

I have been asked this question frequently and inevitably almost every time when I travel to and from America in September.

What is Moon Cake?

Moon cake is a traditional Chinese pastry that is eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Moon cake consists of a thin layer of pastry on the outside, and rich fillings of lotus seed paste or red bean paste on the inside. Some of the cakes may even contain a whole salted egg yolk in the center as the symbol of the full moon. Currently, this is a dessert Chinese people eat as a celebration during family gathering during Mid-Autumn Festival. The holiday is on the 15^th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar.

Moon cake with lotus seed paste filling

Moon cake with red bean filling and a whole salty egg yolk

The History of Moon Cake:

However, moon cake was not initially a symbol of unity. Ancient emperors of China had the customs of worshiping the sun in the spring and the moon in the fall thousand years ago. At the beginning, moon cake was simply a sacrificial offering for the lunar deities. Eating moon cake did not become an annual tradition until Tang Dynasty (618-906 CE), and the meaning of unity was not recorded in books until Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). One of the most well-known myths related to moon cakes is the story of Chang'e and Houyi the Archer, of which there are many versions. Nonetheless, the common ending to all versions is that Chang'e, the wife of Houyi, ate the pill of immortality and flew to the moon.

Chang'e Flying to the Moon

My Personal Opinions of Moon Cakes:

Notice how I said my personal opinions of moon cakes? So the following statements represent no one but me:

The reason why the question, "did you eat moon cake?" bothers me is because I never really liked moon cakes. Surprise! They are almost always dry, dense, and huge. I am that delinquent Chinese child who is desperate to give the moon cake away when the school distributes it as holiday gifts for its students. Don't get me wrong, because I do like traditional Chinese desserts. It is just that moon cake is not one of them. The assumption people usually have in their mind when asking this question is that "since you are a Chinese, you got to love all sorts of Chinese cuisines". However, I bet there are many Americans who do not enjoy burgers and fries, Italians who dislike pasta, or Koreans who hates kimchi (traditional Korean side dish made from fermented vegetables), too.