Asians eat mooncakes, songpyeon and dango at mid-autumn festival to celebrate a tale of undying love
Chinese, Korean and Japanese expats in UAE share their stories and recipes
Mid-autumn festival day is finally here. Children are being dressed in crisp shirts and frocks to visit family, while counting every second to having freshly baked sugary treats like Chinese mooncakes, Korean Songpyeon and Japanese Dango. Celebrations would be incomplete without the moon-themed desserts.
The mid-autumn festival, also known as the Lantern or Moon Festival, is held annually on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar. In 2022, it is being celebrated on September 10. On this day, it is believed that the moon is at its brightest and fullest, coinciding with harvest time in the middle of autumn.
There is thousands of years of history and legend behind the origin of the festival, but one thing has remained constant - the variety of foods made and eaten on the occasion.
To celebrate the holiday, people belonging to South Asian countries, gather with families and friends to enjoy festivities such as feasting on mooncakes, playing with lanterns and going moon gazing. While many celebrate by going back home, people living abroad, such as expats in the UAE, also mark the occasion and shared the sweet memories that it brings to their minds with Gulf News Food.
History
Firstly, let us look at where it all began.
According to chinahighlights.com, a Chinese tourism platform, the mid-autumn festival has a history of more than 3,000 years. It started with the custom of Chinese emperors worshipping the moon during the Zhou Dynasty. The occasion started being celebrated as a festival during the Tang dynasty, which ruled between 618 and 907 AD. Emperors of ancient China would host a feast to make offerings to deities and the moon in celebration of the year’s harvest.
After the Tang Dynasty, the mid-autumn festival also became a time of the year for the emperor to reward his officials for their hard work and contributions. As time passed, the festival grew to involve various traditions. This includes lighting and hanging of lanterns, giving thanks to the moon, praying for better luck, fortune and fertility, as well as spending time with the family to celebrate the moon. Food is at the centre of these celebrations, with moon-shaped sweets and traditional savoury dishes that are served each year.
Currently, it is a Chinese public holiday and also celebrated across South Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and more.
The tale of love, sacrifice and hope
There are many versions of the myth and story behind the mid-autumn festival, but the most well known revolves around an archer hero named Hou Yi and his wife Chang’e (pronounced “cha-nng-uh”). With more than 3,000 years of history, there are different takes on the origin of this festival. Even the most popular one, the story of Chinese warrior-archer Hou Yi and Chang’e, has different iterations.
As legend goes, Hou Yi was rewarded with an elixir of immortality after shooting down nine out of the ten suns that ravaged the land with drought and disaster. However, when Hou Yi’s apprentice, Feng Meng, attempted to steal the elixir, Chang’e stopped him by drinking the elixir herself. After doing so, she became immortal and floated to the moon, never to be seen by her beloved husband again. Her only companion in her lonely existence is the jade or moon rabbit, who was banished there by the Jade Emperor. After learning what had happened to Chang’e, heartbroken Hou Yi would prepare a feast on this day every year when the moon is believed to be the fullest, in hopes of catching a glimpse of his wife’s shadow.
Celebrations are ‘incomplete’ without mooncakes
Whether it’s a celebration of a successful season of farming or of a wife’s sacrifice and her husband’s undying love and hope of reuniting with her one day, the occasion offers many reasons to enjoy time with family and great food.
According to chinaculturetour.com, a website centred on Chinese culture, mooncakes, played a key part in the fall of the Mongol dynasty in China, during the 13th century. Liu Bowen, a Chinese military strategist, suggested a rebellion on the autumn moon festival. This was done by spreading a rumour that a deadly plague had dawned upon the country and the only way to cure it was by eating mooncakes. This was unknown to the Mongols.
Liu Bowen then obtained permission for mooncakes to be given to every Chinese citizen saying it was a gift from the Mongol emperor. But little did they all know that there lay a hidden note inside these tasty treats, which read: “Kill the Mongols on the 15th day of the eighth month.”
Some even say that the message was stamped on the top of these mooncakes and packed in fours. If anyone had to read the message, they had to slice each mooncake in quarters, which then formed a message in 16 pieces. And of course, to destroy the message, they had to eat the mooncakes.
Today, to many who celebrate, the festival is “incomplete” without having mooncakes.
This delicate pastry is the festival’s most famous snacks and is made with flour, golden syrup and various different fillings. Cut into a mooncake and one can find anything from traditional fillings such as lotus seed paste, red bean paste, matcha paste and salted egg yolk to more modern versions with pistachios, chocolate, ice cream or even meat.
Chinese expat August Huang living in Abu Dhabi waits all year for autumn, so that he could treat himself to mooncakes.
“Just like Christmas or American Thanksgiving is incomplete without turkey, the mid-autumn festival is incomplete without having mooncakes,” the 31-year-old said.
Just like Christmas or American Thanksgiving is incomplete without turkey, the mid-autumn festival is incomplete without having mooncakes
Sharing his memories of having the dessert during his childhood, he said: “My mother would make [mooncakes] these during the mid-autumn festival from scratch with a pumpkin filling. The outside was soft and the filling was so sweet, I can’t forget the taste.”
UAE expats remember treats, train journeys and flowers
One of the other dishes Huang particularly remembers having during the festival is steamed crab. Huang, who hails from Jiangsu province in China, said that crab dishes were common during the festival and autumn.
“Freshwater crabs would reach their prime age and taste during the autumn season and they tasted very sweet at that time,” he said.
The crab is steamed lightly with minimal use of spices and additives to the dish, as the goal was to let the tenderness combined with the sweetness of the crabmeat shine. Huang said that steamed crab is generally paired with a touch of vinegar and ginger.
After moving to the UAE two years ago, Huang marks the occasion with his wife and they both make mooncakes at home together and share them with friends.
“I have made many friends through work from different backgrounds, like Pakistan, India, Portugal and Spain. In Dubai, I get a chance to teach them about Chinese culture and I invite them over for Chinese festivals like the autumn festival,” he said.
This year, the businessman has clear plans for how he will be spending the holiday. “I know that I don’t want to work at all on Saturday (September 10) and I will have friends coming over to celebrate with my wife and me. We will be preparing a meal for them,” he said.
Yuting Wang, a sociology professor currently working in Sharjah, grew up in the city of Chongqing, in Southwest China, along the Yangtze River.
During the mid-autumn festival, my grandmother would prepare dinner. Afterwards, my mother and grandmother would call me to have mooncakes, go moon gazing, and wait for the night-blooming cereus (epiphyllum) to blossom
“During the mid-autumn festival, my grandmother would prepare dinner. Afterwards, my mother and grandmother would call me to have mooncakes, go moon gazing, and wait for the night-blooming cereus (epiphyllum) to blossom,” the Chinese expat said.
The time of mid-autumn festival also coincides with when sweet olive or tea olive flowers (osmanthus fragrans) blossom. “I can still vividly recall the fragrance in the night breeze on the night of the festival because of the flowers,” Wang said.
Mooncakes filled with sweet olive or tea olive (osmanthus fragrans) are a specialty in Wang’s hometown. This variation of mooncakes are best had with a cup of tea, which compliments the delicate floral and nutty flavour.
South Korean expat Ewha Kim living in Abu Dhabi also marks Chuseok, Korean for mid-autumn festival, with friends and family. Following the moon theme in food, Songpyeon, traditional Korean rice cakes made of rice powder are essential to any Chuseok gathering.
The 37-year-old distinctly remembers the mildly sweet, chewy, and nutty flavour of the cakes with a hint of pine tree fragrance that comes from steaming the rice cakes in fresh pine needles.
“The Songpyeon I had growing up were filled with sesame seeds and sweetened with honey or sugar. Sometimes they were stuffed with newly harvested soybeans, red beans, chestnuts, and jujube. As Songpyeons look like a half moon, Korean people wish for good health, success and happiness as they eat them during Chuseok,” Kim said.
As Songpyeons look like a half moon, Korean people wish for good health, success and happiness as they eat them during Chuseok.
On Chuseok day, the air in a typical Korean household would be filled with the aroma of jeon, crispy pancakes or fritters made by seasoning whole, sliced, or minced fish, meat and vegetables and Toranguk, taro root soup.
Kim said: “Taro root is the most delicious and nutritious during autumn, as it’s time to harvest it. So, Koreans traditionally have been eating Toranguk or taro root soup on Chuseok. Toranguk is made by boiling taro root with beef and radish.”
For Nam Chan-Woo, Director of the Korean Cultural Center in Abu Dhabi, Chuseok and songpyeon is about revisiting childhood memories. He said: “My childhood memory about the Chuseok holiday is visiting my late father’s hometown with him. The train to his hometown was always packed with people also visiting their own parents and family to celebrate the holiday together.
“When I was young, it was hard to understand why I had to make a long and difficult journey to his hometown during the Chuseok holiday. I did not want to go there because it was located far away from the city where I lived. However, it remains a nostalgic memory to me now.
“While spending three years here in the UAE, I miss the memory of all my family members gathering together to eat songpyeon and laugh while enjoying traditional games on Chuseok. I am very happy to reflect on the meaning of Chuseok and introduce it to Gulf News readers.”
In Japan, the festival is called Tsukimi and the Japanese version of rice cakes also make an appearance.
Haruka Noji, a 33-year-old logistics worker living in Dubai, remembers heading to his aunt and grandparents’ home in Chiba, around 40 kilometres away from central Tokyo, to mark Tsukimi. The first thing he would do was to reach out for a skewer of Dango.
Dango is a Japanese dumpling made from a mixture of different types of rice flour. It is made differently than mochi, which is made after steaming glutinous rice. Dango is usually round in shape and three to five pieces of the sweet treat are often served on a skewer. The pieces are usually brushed with a sweet soy sauce glaze or filled with red bean paste.
We would head to the roof at night with all of the family members to gaze at the moon, and I, who was a child at the time, would always have a skewer of Dango in my hand as we looked for the moon.
“My favourite is the plain kind and the kind that is filled with red bean paste,” the Japanese expat said.
The treat is especially eaten during Tsukimi because of its shape that resembles a full moon.
“We would head to the roof at night with all of the family members to gaze at the moon, and I, who was a child at the time, would always have a skewer of Dango in my hand as we looked for the moon,” Noji said.
If all this talk about traditional food and sweet treats has left you wanting to try out some for yourself, we have a list of recipes for mid-autumn festival food.
Recipe for Chinese mooncake with an adzuki or red bean filling
Recipe for Songpyeon or Korean half-moon rice cakes
Korean taro root beef soup
Do you have a food story you would like us to feature? Write to us at food@gulfnews.com