Mooncakes are to mid-autumn festival what mince pies are to christmas. the seasonal round cakes traditionally have a sweet filling of lotus seed paste or red bean paste and often have one or more salted duck eggs in the center to represent the moon. and the moon is what this celebration is all about. mid-autumn festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th month, it is the time when the moon is said to be at its brightest and fullest. this year the festival falls on october 1.
there are two legends which claim to explain the tradition of eating mooncakes. one tang dynasty myth holds that the earth once had 10 suns circling it. one day all 10 suns appeared at once, scorching the planet with their heat. it was thanks to a skillful archer named hou yi that the earth was saved. he shot down all but one of the suns. as his reward, the heavenly queen mother gave hou yi the elixir of immortality, but she warned him that he must use it wisely. hou yi ignored her advice and, corrupted by fame and fortune, became a tyrannical leader. chang-er, his beautiful wife, could no longer stand by and watch him abuse his power so she stole his elixir and fled to the moon to escape his angry wrath. and thus began the legend of the beautiful woman in the moon, the moon fairy.
the second legend has it that during the yuan dynasty, an underground group led by zhu yuan zang was determined to rid the country of mongolian dominance. the moon cake was created to carry a secret message. when the cake was opened and the message read, an uprising was unleashed which successfully routed the mongolians. it happened at the time of the full moon, which, some say, explains why mooncakes are eaten at this time.
mooncakes are usually stamped with chinese characters indicating the name of the ba kery and the type of filling used. some ba keries will even stamp them with your family name so that you can give personalised ones to friends and family. they are usually presented in boxes of four which indicate the four phases of the moon. traditional mooncakes are made with melted lard, but today vegetable oil is more often used in the interests of health.
mooncakes are not for the diet-conscious as they are loaded with calories. the best way to wash down one of these sticky cakes is with a cup of chinese tea, especially jasmine or chrysanthemum tea, which aids the digestion.
中秋節(jié)吃月餅就像西方人圣誕節(jié)吃百果餡餅一樣，是必不可少的。圓圓的月餅中通常包有香甜的蓮子餡或是紅豆餡，餡的中央還會(huì)加上一個(gè)金黃的咸鴨蛋黃來代表月亮。而月亮正是中秋節(jié)慶祝的主題。每年農(nóng)歷8月15日人們一起慶祝中秋，據(jù)說這一天的月亮是一年中最亮最圓的。今年的中秋節(jié)恰好是陽歷的10月1日(中國(guó)的國(guó)慶日)。
關(guān)于吃月餅這個(gè)傳統(tǒng)的來歷有兩個(gè)傳說。一個(gè)是唐朝的神話故事，說的是當(dāng)時(shí)地球被10個(gè)太陽包圍著。有一天10個(gè)太陽同時(shí)出現(xiàn)在天空中，巨大的熱量幾乎把地球烤焦了。多虧一位名叫后羿的神箭手射下了9個(gè)太陽，地球才被保住。為了獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)后羿，王母娘娘賜給后羿一種長(zhǎng)生不老藥，但是王母警告他必須正當(dāng)使用。然而后羿沒有理會(huì)王母娘娘的警告，他被名利沖昏了頭腦，變成了一個(gè)暴君。后羿美麗的妻子嫦娥對(duì)他的暴行再也不能袖手旁觀，于是她偷走了后羿的長(zhǎng)生不老藥，飛到月亮上逃避后羿的狂怒。從此就有了關(guān)于月宮仙子嫦娥，這個(gè)月亮上的美麗女人的傳說。
第二個(gè)傳說講的是在元朝，朱元璋領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的起義軍計(jì)劃起義來擺脫蒙古族的統(tǒng)治。他們用月餅來傳遞密信。掰開月餅就可以找到里面的密信，起義軍通過這種方式成功的發(fā)動(dòng)了起義，趕走了元朝的統(tǒng)治者。這場(chǎng)起義發(fā)生在八月十五之時(shí)，于是中秋節(jié)吃月餅的習(xí)俗便在民間傳開來。
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