Visit Singapore

Mid Autumn Festival (September)

The Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the eight month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, is celebrated with family gatherings, prayers, and a lantern parade by children. Offerings of moon cakes, fried chicken, roasted pork, pomelos, watermelons seeds and Chinese tea are made to deities and ancestors, while prayers are offered with joss-sticks, red candles are lit and joss paper burnt.

One of the legends behind the eating of moon cakes is about Chang Er, a beautiful woman who transformed into a fairy and floated to the moon after taking an immortality pill. The grief-stricken prayers of he Husband, Hou Yi, a heroic archer touched the hearts of the heavenly gods who allowed the couple to reunite on Mid-Autumn Night. The Chinese thus eat moon cakes in memory of the lovers.

Today it is still believed that if you look hard enough at the moon on Mid-Autumn, you'll be able to see Chang Er and the rabbit which is keeping her company.

Another legend has its roots in 14th century China's Yuan dynasty. The people then were living under the tyrannical rule of a Mongolian ruler who, in order to safeguard his empire, had forbidden the people to possess any tools, including kitchen knives.

A Chinese leader, Zhu Yuan Zhang, wanted to bring the people together to overthrow the tyrant's rule. He had to find a way of putting out the word without arousing the Mongolian's suspicion; a comrade came up with the idea of stuffing paper messages saying "Strike on Mid-Autumn Night" into freshly made round cakes, which were then distributed as gifts to the people.

On Mid-Autumn Night, where the moon is at its brightest, the people united as a rebel army and overthrew the oppressors to establish the Ming Dynasty. (AD 1368 - 1644) To commemorate the successful rebellion, the Chinese began the custom of eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn.

Moon cakes are sweet, round cakes traditionally filled with lotus seed paste, or fatty meat, nuts and melon seeds. These days - you can even find moon cakes with eccentric fillings, such as durian, cherry, chocolate, bird's nest and green tea.