Chaoshan Mid-Autumn Festival

Since Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is coming, please let me introduce the special food and activities of this festival to all of you. The special food of this day is Chaoshan moon cake, being similar to but also a little bit different from the moon cakes from North Areas in China. Generally, Chaoshan moon cakes could be divided into two parts. The first part is similar to the pie crust, a mixture of lard, flour and sugar, while the second part is the stuffing, which can be classified into green beans paste, white sugar, lard, sesame and black beans paste. With the crispy crust and sufficient stuffing, Chaoshan moon cakes are always popular for its delicacy and fresh sweetness, and the hot ones could be more delicious.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, people in Chaoshan should express their good desires to the moon, which is regarded as the spirit representative of people there. The expression must be taken place in open areas, for instance, balcony and courtyard for citizens or altars for rural residents. However, most of men should not join the praying as requested by Chinese traditional rules.

After dinner of this day, women will dress up and bring the kids to make tributes ready, such as moon cakes, grapefruits, carambola, pineapples, taros, cakes and cookies and so forth, waiting for the rise of the moon. As the moon rises, people will start the praying. For example, maiden girls will be blessed for finding her Mr. Right ASAP, and children will be blessed for making progress in study. After the praying, the whole family will get together to enjoy the glorious full moon and share the moon cakes with Kungfu Tea, indoors or outdoors. Some other people will join various activities to celebrate the festival, such as folding paper, burning the home-made bricked tower, burning the grass woodpile and so on. All in all, this is a festival for Chinese families to reunion just as a full moon.

Wish you happy Mid-Autumn Festival!