A Festivity I Celebrate
The three common festivities you'll hear in Malaysia are Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Deepavali and Chinese New Year, but I'd like to tell you a different festivity celebrated by my culture. We call it Mooncake Festival. The Mooncake Festival is also called Mid Autumn Festival as it is celebrated in the mid Autumn of the Lunar Calendar, which is the Chinese 15th August.
During the Mooncake Festival, families go outside of their houses for moon watching, a must-do during the festival. We dine on peanuts, tea, taros the shape of bull horns and the highlight: the mooncake. Children love to run around the neighborhood carrying lit lanterns and lighting candles everywhere.
Mooncakes come in a round, flower like pattern. It's sort of like a cake with filling in it. Its filling can be anything from chocolate to sesame, but the classic ones are lotus filling with a single yolk and red bean.
The legend of Chang-O, the beautiful lady who flew up to the moon with her small white rabbit is still told today, as is the story of the China Revolution.
It is said long time ago, there were 10 suns in the sky, making it unbearably hot. The king announced he would reward anyone - anyone who could handle this problem - handsomely. An archer went to see the king and promised the problem would be solved. He took his bow and arrow and, with his perfect aim and skills, shot down 9 of the suns. Immediately, the temperature dropped and the single sun provided light enough light for everyone. The king was very pleased. He rewarded the archer with a pill of everlasting life. The archer took it back home where his wife was waiting. She noticed the pill and ate it while her husband was away. She suddenly felt lighter and realized she was floating. Out of panic, she grabbed her pet rabbit and they both floated to the moon. Many folk say she may still be there with her rabbit, although astronauts haven't seen any of them yet!
Another tale suggests long time ago, during the Yuan Dynasty or Mongol Dynasty, the people disliked the government as they were cruel. The government was ruled by the Mongols and they ill-treated the people. One day, an old soldier went to visit his friend. His friend's wife and son were there too. The son kept begging his mother to bake him mooncakes. After a while, she submitted and went to bake the mooncakes. Her son, overjoyed to get to eat mooncakes, grabbed his crayons and paper and started to doodle. The old soldier noticed this and had an idea. He borrowed a crayon and some paper and scribbled: "Kill the Mongols on the 15th of 8th Lunar month". he passed it to the mother and asked her to bake the message into the last mooncake and give it to him. She did as told and he gave it to another friend, who did the same thing and passed the message on. The Mongols didn't bother as they thought mooncakes were just plain Chinese dessert. During the 15th of the 8th lunar month, the soldier and the common folk all gathered and took the entire Mongolian government down, and China was free again.
We celebrate the festival just like China,. After all, how can we forget our roots?
The three common festivities you'll hear in Malaysia are Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Deepavali and Chinese New Year, but I'd like to tell you a different festivity celebrated by my culture. We call it Mooncake Festival. The Mooncake Festival is also called Mid Autumn Festival as it is celebrated in the mid Autumn of the Lunar Calendar, which is the Chinese 15th August.
During the Mooncake Festival, families go outside of their houses for moon watching, a must-do during the festival. We dine on peanuts, tea, taros the shape of bull horns and the highlight: the mooncake. Children love to run around the neighborhood carrying lit lanterns and lighting candles everywhere.
Mooncakes come in a round, flower like pattern. It's sort of like a cake with filling in it. Its filling can be anything from chocolate to sesame, but the classic ones are lotus filling with a single yolk and red bean.
The legend of Chang-O, the beautiful lady who flew up to the moon with her small white rabbit is still told today, as is the story of the China Revolution.
It is said long time ago, there were 10 suns in the sky, making it unbearably hot. The king announced he would reward anyone - anyone who could handle this problem - handsomely. An archer went to see the king and promised the problem would be solved. He took his bow and arrow and, with his perfect aim and skills, shot down 9 of the suns. Immediately, the temperature dropped and the single sun provided light enough light for everyone. The king was very pleased. He rewarded the archer with a pill of everlasting life. The archer took it back home where his wife was waiting. She noticed the pill and ate it while her husband was away. She suddenly felt lighter and realized she was floating. Out of panic, she grabbed her pet rabbit and they both floated to the moon. Many folk say she may still be there with her rabbit, although astronauts haven't seen any of them yet!
Another tale suggests long time ago, during the Yuan Dynasty or Mongol Dynasty, the people disliked the government as they were cruel. The government was ruled by the Mongols and they ill-treated the people. One day, an old soldier went to visit his friend. His friend's wife and son were there too. The son kept begging his mother to bake him mooncakes. After a while, she submitted and went to bake the mooncakes. Her son, overjoyed to get to eat mooncakes, grabbed his crayons and paper and started to doodle. The old soldier noticed this and had an idea. He borrowed a crayon and some paper and scribbled: "Kill the Mongols on the 15th of 8th Lunar month". he passed it to the mother and asked her to bake the message into the last mooncake and give it to him. She did as told and he gave it to another friend, who did the same thing and passed the message on. The Mongols didn't bother as they thought mooncakes were just plain Chinese dessert. During the 15th of the 8th lunar month, the soldier and the common folk all gathered and took the entire Mongolian government down, and China was free again.
We celebrate the festival just like China,. After all, how can we forget our roots?
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