Appreciating the Moon - a Symbol of Family Reunion Eating mooncakes is an essential custom in China and other Asia countries to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival.ģ. Mooncakes symbolize reunion and are used as a festival food, still by some as offerings to the moon and its gods, and as gifts to relatives and friends. Mooncakes, also known as reunion cakes, were originally made as offerings to the God of the Moon and later became the most important food for celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival. Eating Mooncakes - The Most Representative Tradition
Therefore, there can be traffic jams, especially on the day of this festival.Įvery family prepares food that emphasizes the bounty of fall's harvest or symbolizes good luck, including pumpkin, sweet potato, pomelos, and walnuts along with traditional celebratory foods like crab, pork, and duck. People who don't have time to stay with their parents for the holiday try their best to go home and at least have dinner together. Having Dinner Together - Happy Family Reunion TimeĪs Mid-Autumn Festival represents the reunion of families, families have dinner together on that night. Read on to see how Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. There are many traditional and new celebrations. It's a family day in China like Thanksgiving. “Of course, sharing with family is the best way to enjoy mooncake,” he says.The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second most important traditional festival in China (the most important one is Chinese New Year). (Photo credit: Zhan Guo Zhang)Īnd the best way to enjoy a mooncake? Chef Cao suggests that while traditional mooncakes are served with tea, some mooncakes can also be paired with champagne or white wine. Traditional mooncakes are best served with tea. He recommends travelers spend the holiday in Beijing to visit the Back Lakes (Hou Hai) or Shichahai for the perfect moon-gazing setting - beautiful lanterns are often hung around the area during the festival. Now Chef Cao spends his Mid-Autumn Festival traveling the country with his family to try mooncakes from different areas.
#CHINESE MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL PHILADELPHIA FULL#
“I really miss the time when I was a child, when my mother held me to enjoy the full moon and eat mooncakes,” he says. With fillings ranging from a sweet date jam to savory XO sauce and pork, each mooncake highlights seasonal ingredients as a nod to the harvest and is meant to allow guests to experience the extensive and profound traditional culture of China.Īt the same time they serve as a nod to Chef Cao’s own childhood.
(Photo credit: Zhan Guo Zhang) JW Marriott Hotel Beijing Central’s “Reunion” mooncake box.
JW Marriott Hotel Beijing Central Chef Cao. Inspired by the theme of reunion in the classic tale, Chef Cao creates thoughtfully crafted mooncakes to highlight how the holiday, and the food, brings family and friends together in China. Throughout the season images of Chang’e appear on cards, lanterns and other seasonal decorations. Her husband, left mourning on Earth, took her favorite foods to an altar as an offering in hopes of seeing his “Lady in the Moon”again.Īnd in that spirit, offering mooncakes to family and friends became a ritual during early Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations. The potion caused her to fly higher and higher until she reached the moon. Legend has it that the moon goddess, Chang’e, drank an elixir of immortal life from the hands of her husband’s enemy. Among these chefs is Chef Cao, of the JW Marriott Hotel Beijing Central, who found inspiration in an ancient legend for the flavors in his mooncakes. Modern chefs have transformed the treat with new flavor profiles and ingredients, from green tea to ice cream.
Under a shining moon Chinese families celebrate by hosting meals, hanging lanterns and, of course, eating mooncakes descended from a more than 3,500-year-old recipe. Mooncake ingredients have changed since the original 3,500-year-old recipe. The mooncake, a crisp pastry wrapped around a lotus seed filling and a surprising, salty egg-yolk center, is sliced and shared as a symbol of good heath and good fortune during the celebration also known as the Moon Festival.Īccording to Chinese calendars, the moon is believed to be the biggest and fullest during this time, from mid-September to early October. While Americans pile their dinner tables high with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie to celebrate Thanksgiving at the height of the fall season, Chinese families also come together to celebrate the harvest, but at the center of the table is a favored delicacy known as “mooncake” consumed only during the Mid-Autumn Festival, China’s second largest holiday next to Chinese New Year.
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