Happy Moon Festival !
Sorry about this - it started yesterday but Song & Bei (especially wee Bei) have introduced me to the Chinese Moon or mid autumn Festival.
In many parts of East Asia, families are gathering together - with their traditional coloured lanterns and, of course, their mooncakes - to celebrate one of the region’s largest annual festivals.
The Moon Festival has been celebrated in East Asia for centuries, and there are many legends to explain its origin.
One tells the story of a beautiful woman called Chang Er, who was believed to have taken a pill containing the elixir of life, and to have flown to the moon to escape from her husband, a tyrannical warrior.
Lanterns are also an essential part of the Mid-Autumn Festival. According to the tale, Chang Er can be seen at full-moon in mid-autumn, which corresponds to the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar.
The exact date in the Western calendar varies from year to year, but usually falls in September.
The mooncake itself is said to commemorate a rebellion against the Mongolian Yuan dynasty in the 14th century.
Knowing the Moon Festival was approaching, local Chinese rebels are said to have communicated with each other by writing messages which they hid inside seasonal cakes.
On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew their Yuan rulers to form the Ming dynasty.
Hence, moon-shaped pastries (moon Cakes) are exchanged as gifts.
Sadly I am yet to talk Song or Bei into bringing in some Moon Cakes… 