Stories as fillings to moon cakes

CEBU, Philippines - Omi to fu! (Buddha blessing!) In keeping with tradition, members of the Fu Guang San Chu Un Temple (V. Rama Avenue) celebrated Moon Festival headed by Master Miao Chen.

Ben Chua, Susan Tan, her namesake Susan Tan-Tiansu and the rest of Buddhist Chinese here in Cebu City observed the traditional moon cake dice game.

Before the festive sharing of the chong guan (made of gluten with peanuts, black beans and sesame seeds for filling, and optional orange peels to enhance flavor in sugary soup) which takes a full circle shape symbolizing perfection, Ben Chua and Susan Tan pointed out that the Zhong Qiu Jie, which is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar.

Tan said that “it is a time for family members and loved ones to congregate and enjoy the full moon” which is an “auspicious symbol of abundance, harmony and luck.”

It was also learned from Chua that adults will usually indulge in fragrant moon cakes of many varieties with a good cup of piping hot Chinese tea, while the little ones run around with their brightly lit lanterns.

After offering the 10 a.m. Mass, Master Chen handed over to this writer and photographer tasty Plain Lotus moon cakes filled with melon seeds, salted duck egg, and a string of legends.

“Zhong Qiu Jie probably began as a harvest festival,” this was further learned, and that the “festivity was later given a mythological flavor with legends of Chang-E, the beautiful lady in the moon.”

According to Chinese mythology, the earth once had 10 suns circling around it. One day, all 10 suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved when a strong archer, Hou Yi, succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns. Yi stole the elixir of life to save the people from his tyrannical rule, but his wife, Chang-E, drank it. Thus started the legend of the lady in the moon to whom young Chinese girls would pray at the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Another “filling”, which served a feeling of delight not only to the palate but to the brain’s trivia box as well, points to the 14th century wherein the eating of moon cakes at Zhong Qiu Jie was given a new significance.

The story goes that when a certain Zhu Yuan Zhang was plotting to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty started by the Mongolians, the rebels hid their messages in Mid-Autumn moon cakes. Zhong Qiu Jie hence has become also a commemoration of the overthrow of the Mongolians by the Han people.

During the Yuan Dynasty (A.D. 1206-1368), China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960-1279) were unhappy at submitting to foreign rule, and set how to coordinate the rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Packed 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. What followed was the establishment of the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644).

Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this event.