The biggest thing about the mid-autumn festival is Chinese mooncake, which is known as ‘Yuèbǐng’ amidst the Chinese. Mooncake is a festival delicacy, exorbitantly demanded during the Chinese mid-autumn festival, which is the second biggest Chinese festival after Chinese New Year. With the extreme popularity of mooncakes during the season, this harvest festival is also known as the ‘mooncake festival’.
On the 15th day of the 8th month of ‘bayue’, as per the Chinese lunar calendar, the mid-autumn festival is celebrated with fun and tradition, and that’s when mooncakes are abundantly prepared, sold and consumed widely in China. 
About Mid-Autumn Festival
Let’s have a quick look at the tradition of the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival. Often dubbed as the mooncake festival, it is the second-largest festival of China and is celebrated during the middle of autumn season every year. In Mandarin, it is called Zhōngqiū Jié, whereas, in Cantonese, it is pronounced Jūng-chāu Jit, both meaning the same thing.
Mid-autumn festival is China’s harvest festival. It is observed by ethnic Chinese everywhere in the world, and also by the Vietnamese. Mid-autumn festival is a period during which everyone goes back to families and celebrates the season with other family members. It is an occasion for gathering and thanksgiving and celebration.
The Chinese historically celebrated the harvest season since 1600 BC. The celebration gradually shaped up into a festival around 900 BC. During this period, the term ‘mid-autumn’ was coined and largely began to be used to denote the harvest festival. Moon worship was also part of the festival, as the festival day according to the lunar calendar coincided with the full moon night of the season.
What is Mooncake?
Although named cake, mooncake is, in fact, a pastry-like delicacy. Every mooncake is made of a crust and filling. As per the Chinese tradition, the circular shape of the mooncake symbolises ‘unity’ and ‘longevity’, and simultaneously these words are usually etched on the crust of mooncakes in Chinese characters. Also, the roundness of the mooncakes signifies the full moon, as this festival is linked with the moon worship. Apart from this, the mooncakes often bear the name of the bakery where they are produced, and sometimes the image of Chang-e, the Chinese goddess of the moon, and other images like rabbit, flowers, and leaves.
The crust of the mooncake often tends to be either tender or chewy or flaky based on three culinary styles. The Cantonese version tends to be chewy, whereas the Suzhou style advocates the use of a flaky crust. Meanwhile, in some other provinces, the mooncake crusts are often made to be more tender. Lard, vegetable oil, and glutinous rice are the ingredients used to make the crust of mooncakes.
The most popular traditional filling used in mooncakes is lotus seed paste. Secondly, sweet bean paste also is used instead of lotus seed paste. The bean paste can be made using adzuki red beans, mung beans, or white kidney beans. Another popular filling with Chinese mooncake is jujube paste. A fifth type of filling used is ‘five nuts’, also called ‘five kernels’, which is a mix of five types of chopped nuts blended with thick maltose syrup. Apart from this, the special ones often contain a salted whole duck egg yolk, symbolising the full moon.
Legends of Mooncake
Traditionally, the Chinese emperors were bound to offer sacrifices to please the sun in the season of the spring and the moon in the autumn. Mooncakes were originated as part of the offerings to the moon goddess Chang-e.
There is an interesting folk tale which tells why moon goddess Chang-e is revered during the mid-autumn festival. Chang-e was the wife of an ancient heroic archer named, Hou Yi. Hou Yi saved the earth from extreme drought and temperature by shooting down nine out of ten suns which loomed around the earth. As a result, Hou Yi was rewarded with the elixir of life from heaven, which made him arrogant and evil. Goddess Chang-e, in order to save humans and the world from Hou Yi’s arrogance, drank the elixir all by herself and flew to the moon. Though Hou Yi felt insulted, he let Chang-e live on the moon as he loved her very much.
Mooncakes also have an interesting historical myth behind it which is linked to the Chinese rebellion against Mongolian-led Yuan dynasty from 1280 to 1368 AD. The Ming rebel leaders spread a rumor among the civilians that a special kind of mooncake is the only remedy against an imminent outrage of a deadly disease. So, they made mooncakes and distributed among the civilians. The rebel leaders secretly hid the plan of the revolution within the mooncakes, and as a result, the people were organized and they led the revolution which successfully overthrew the Yuan rule, and the Ming rule was established.
Mooncake in Modern Times
With the spread of Chinese culture across the world, mooncake has become a much-favored delicacy these days, in other East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, and even in the Western countries. Apart from the traditional mooncakes, more westernized versions of Chinese mooncakes are found nowadays, especially during the mid-autumn festival. Examples of these include ice cream mooncakes, square-shaped mooncakes, fruit-flavored mooncakes and many more.
Snowy skin mooncake is one such trendy delicacy variety nowadays. Originated in Hong Kong, snowy skin white is white in colour, as its name implies, and is sometimes equated to the Japanese mochi in terms of its chewiness. Its outer layer is made of from glutinous rice flour, and it is preferably served frozen cold. The fillings are made out of a variety of flavours and ingredients including fruit flavours, bean and nut pastes, eg. Durian, sesame, mango, purple yam, green tea, strawberry. Please find here the recipe for a snowy mooncake with custard filling.
Other varieties of mooncakes include ice cream mochis and square-shaped mochis. The newer fillings often get replaced with more healthy ingredients like low sugar lotus seed paste. It is very curious to note that, Chinese mooncakes is one of the very few delicacies, which have both its traditional and contemporary flavours are equally in demand nowadays.
