Saturday, October 14, 2006
Turk-Cake Fusion
This Thanksgiving weekend will be unique from all the rest. Coincidentally, the 2006 turkey dinner holiday also marks the celebration of the Chinese Mid - Autumn festival. Eating Chinese Mooncake and having family dinner outtings are a couple of the traditions associated with this annual festival.
Some people believe the tradition first originated from the tale involving a famous Chinese archer who was highly respected by the Gods. The Gods decided to develop a special pill that would allow the archer to live forever. One day the archer's curious wife discovered the pill inside a nicely designed chest box, she opened it and swallowed the pill. As punishment for her actions the Gods bannished her to the moon forever.
Others associate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival and mooncake to this historical event thousands of years ago. The historical significance of this festival can be traced by to the time when China was ruled by royalty. All of the dynasty's subjects were upset and angry at their rulers and they had planned an elaborate scheme to over throw the ruling dynasty during the festival. On the eve of this event, everyone bought mooncake for the Mid-Autumn festival. Hidden inside the mooncake was the time and place of when the coup would occur.
Today the festival is widely celebrated throughout the world and Chinese families can select mooncake with a variety of different fillings. The most traditional mooncake flavors are lotus and red bean filling with an egg yolk at the centre. Over the years other fillings with pork, ham, egg and green tea also become very popular flavors for mooncake enthusiats.
Since the Mid-Autumn festival and Thanksgiving weekend collide on the same weekend, our household plans on having a turkey dinner with mooncake for dessert. It will definately be a unique and interesting holiday for me and my family as we celebrate two very important events one originating from the East and the other from the West.
Some people believe the tradition first originated from the tale involving a famous Chinese archer who was highly respected by the Gods. The Gods decided to develop a special pill that would allow the archer to live forever. One day the archer's curious wife discovered the pill inside a nicely designed chest box, she opened it and swallowed the pill. As punishment for her actions the Gods bannished her to the moon forever.
Others associate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival and mooncake to this historical event thousands of years ago. The historical significance of this festival can be traced by to the time when China was ruled by royalty. All of the dynasty's subjects were upset and angry at their rulers and they had planned an elaborate scheme to over throw the ruling dynasty during the festival. On the eve of this event, everyone bought mooncake for the Mid-Autumn festival. Hidden inside the mooncake was the time and place of when the coup would occur.
Today the festival is widely celebrated throughout the world and Chinese families can select mooncake with a variety of different fillings. The most traditional mooncake flavors are lotus and red bean filling with an egg yolk at the centre. Over the years other fillings with pork, ham, egg and green tea also become very popular flavors for mooncake enthusiats.
Since the Mid-Autumn festival and Thanksgiving weekend collide on the same weekend, our household plans on having a turkey dinner with mooncake for dessert. It will definately be a unique and interesting holiday for me and my family as we celebrate two very important events one originating from the East and the other from the West.
