The Story of Mooncake

The Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates the time when the moon is furthest from the earth and is said to be perfectly round. The moon symbolizes balance, harmony and family. This is a very happy festival as families and neighbours gather together for moon-watching parties whilst children carry brightly-coloured lanterns. Mooncakes filled with exotic fare and tea is always served.

There are many stories regarding the origin of the mooncake and the Mid-Autumn Festival. The most popular is related to the Yuan Dynasty.

Mooncake were used as a medium by the Ming revolutionaries in their espionage effort to secretly distribute letters in order to overthrow the Mongolian rulers of China in the Yuan dynasty. The idea is said to be conceived by Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋) and his advisor Liu Bowen (劉伯溫), who circulated a rumor that a deadly plague was spreading and the only way to prevent it was to eat the special mooncakes. This prompted the quick distribution of the mooncakes, which were used to hide a secret message coordinating the Han Chinese revolt on 15th day of the eigth lunar month.

Another method of hiding the message was printed in the surface of mooncakes as a simple puzzle or mozaic. In order to read the encrypted message, each of the 4 mooncakes packaged together must be cut into 4 parts each. The 16 pieces of mooncake, must then be piece together in such a fashion that the secret messages can be read. The pieces of mooncake are then eaten to destroy the message.

Before wishing everyone a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, it's...

Happy Children's Day!