Life through the eyes of emery

The Story of the Mooncake

It's Mooncake Festival today! My first time being able to savour mooncakes at non-exorbitant prices in 5 years as I had been doing in Melbourne. :) Mooncakes are aplenty here. I remember those days when each piece of mooncake was so precious and how my mum told me she would keep them for me till I came back from Australia but it was just impossible coz I came back only once a year. ;)

So to rekindle my Chinese roots, here's the story of the mooncake that I got from the lovely mooncake box from Equatorial Hotel:

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The mooncake, a customary gift during the Mid-Autumn Festival, made its first appearance in Chinese history during the Yuan Dynasty.

For almost a century, the people of China had suffered dire times under oppressive Mongol rule. Until the mooncake came to the rescue.

In 1368, in an effort to overthrow the Mongols, the Chinese baked hundreds of little moon shaped cakes during the Moon festival.

However, they contained an altogether different filling from the 'leng yong' or 'tau sar' enjoyed today.

Inside were messages that were secretly circulated among family and friends, inciting them to join an impending rebellion.

Dismissing the innocent looking mooncakes as part of the festivities, the Mongols were taken completely by suprise by a well-planned rebellion. And the infamous Mongol Yuan Dynasty came to a humiliating end.

Every Moon festival since, mooncakes have been exchanged and enjoyed to mark the occasion.
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Few thoughts came to my mind - who came up with this idea? Was it anyhow inspired by fortune cookies? I believe it must've been a woman who thought of this - and as a way to try out a new recipe perhaps and aaah, we could double it up as a message spreader. Did anyone choke on the message while eating the mooncakes? ;)

Just me and my inquisitive self and crazy imagination and thoughts.. pictures of my first mooncakes bought coming up... :)

posted by emeryz @ 11:13 PM