Legend Of The Moon

Many legends have been spun from the moon. Over in Malaysia, we will be celebrating a mid autumn festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth Lunar month of the Chinese calender. The festival is celebrated with the eating of mooncakes and hanging up of lanterns in the homes.

What is the story behind this festival? The mid autumn festival celebrates the liberation from the rule of the Mongols during 14th century China and as always legend has it that a secret plot was hatched against the Mongolians and these were kept hidden in the mooncakes and was then widely distributed to the people. What is the significance of the lanterns? Well, they were used as signals at night.

I grew up enjoying mooncakes and lanterns like most children. I believe the ones who enjoy the most are the children as we get to show off our lanterns in myriad of shapes and colours. These days, lanterns are no longer just made from coloured paper but they come in the most creative designs and are operated by batteries! Mooncakes are not spared either. They have evolved in terms of texture and taste with flavours like green tea, durian, dragonfruit and there's even jelly mooncakes!

For me, I still cherish the good old traditional mooncakes (with that yummy single egg yolk) and paper lanterns in which candles were used instead of batteries. Old school rocks!