MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL

FIRST, A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY:

For thousands of years, the Chinese people have related the vicissitudes of life to changes of the moon as it waxes and wanes; joy and sorrow, parting and reunion. Because the full moon is round and symbolizes reunion, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the festival of reunion. All family members try to get together on this special day. Those who can not return home watch the bright moonlight and feel deep longing for their loved ones.

Today, festivities centered about the Mid-Autumn Festival are more varied. After a family reunion dinner, many people like to go out to attend special performances in parks or on public squares.

People in different parts of China have different ways to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. In Guangzhou in South China, a huge lantern show is a big attraction for local citizens. Thousands of differently shaped lanterns are lit, forming a fantastic contrast with the bright moonlight.

There is this story about the moon-cake. during the Yuan dynasty (A.D. 1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280) were unhappy at submitting to the foreign rule, and set how to coordinate the rebellion without being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Backed into each moon cake was a message with the outline of the attack. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this legend and was called the Moon Cake.

(Text and photo from http://www.chinavoc.com/festivals/Midautumn.htm)

NOW ONTO OUR CELEBRATION:

After a LONG week of Malia being sick and grumpy, and Rick being gone on a business trip, it was time to celebrate! Malia is wearing her Steelers cheerleading outfit (compliments of Jim and Susie) to celebrate that her Daddy has finally arrived home. Her cheer when he walked through the door? "LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!"

We have yet to purchase moon cake molds, but I found a kid-friendly recipe on the internet that we opted for this year. We made the dough, stuck it in the fridge and went for Chinese take-out at our favorite Chinese restaurant. After we got home, ate and cleaned up, we were ready to make our very first batch of moon cakes. We each took turns taking small mounds of the dough and rolling them into small balls. We then placed them on wax paper and made indentations with our thumbs.

Well, Malia used her fingers.

Malia loved rolling dough in her hands and copying what we were doing.

After all the balls were rolled and indentations made, we used different ingredients to fill them. The recipe called for your favorite jam and the only jam we had was strawberry. However, we decided to try some other ingredients, including grape jelly, pineapple ice cream topping and caramel syrup.

Now, we hope you enjoy this next series of pictures as we go from wax paper ...

... to baking sheet ...

... and out of the oven! HA! Lookin' good, right?

We know ... not looking overly appetizing.
But after moving them to a festive plate ...

... they didn't look half bad. In fact, they actually looked good enough to eat. Malia even had a hard time keeping her hands off them!

And the verdict?

Not too bad, actually. The strawberry jam cakes were by far the best - and least runny as you can tell by the above picture. I guess that's why the recipe called for jam.

We had a lot of fun making them and an even better time just spending time together as a family. We look forward to enjoying this holiday in the years to come. Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy tonight, so gazing up at the moon wasn't on our agenda. Three out of the four of us were really tired and went to bed instead.

HAPPY MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!