Pearly Jade Mooncake

Description
Admire the bright pearly moon on the mid-autumn night and send your warm wishes with this gift. The tasty moon cake is made with omochi and enhanced with organic aloe vera gel and bee honey. Item can only be deliver starting 6th September 2010.

Shanghai Mooncakes

Look out for more egg, fruit, ice-cream, mushroom and chocolate mooncakes this year as people’s mooncake budgets tighten for Mid-autumn festival.

It's like kissing your 90-year-old grandmother on the lips, or welcoming your boss back from holiday. You know you have to, but you'd really rather not.

The giving of mooncakes during Mid-autumn Festival mooncake is one of those traditions that has become part of national protocol, despite revolving around a mouth-drying, insipid, and generally unpopular food item.

And now, believe it or not, they're getting more expensive.

That's like saying: "Come to the Expo, now with even longer queues!"

To be fair, we only have ourselves to blame. With Mid-autumn Festival only two weeks away, mooncakes are in high demand. And according to Shanghai Food Association officials, retail prices are up anywhere from five to 20 percent.

The price hikes are mainly attributed to the rising cost of ingredients.

A staff member at the Xinhualou Co, a major Shanghai mooncake producer, told Shanghai Daily that a box of eight of its mooncakes now costs RMB 68 compared to RMB 60 last year.

The more palatable flavors are particularly affected. Ingredients that are seeing as much as a 25 percent price hike due to terrible weather last year in many of China’s agricultural areas include lotus seeds, beans and walnuts.

To help consumers cope, many mooncake makers are substituting lighter (and cheaper) ingredients like fruit, ice-cream, mushrooms and chocolate, for traditional ones.

Hopefully not all in one Shanghai mooncake. But you never know.


Source: http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/eat/another-great-reason-avoid-mooncakes-year-theyre-more-expensive-029408

Chinese Festival: Mid-autumn Festival (Moon Festival)

Mid Autumn Festival (Moon Festival) is one of Chinese traditional festivals, which happens at the the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month every year. There are a number of legends and traditions about Moon Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese New Year, Qing ming festival and Dragon Boat Festival are known as four main Chinese traditional festivals.

Origin of Mid-Autumn Festival
Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as “Zhong Qiu Jie” and “Tuan Yuan Jie”, is the second largest traditonal festival coming after the Chinese New Year. Mid-Autumn Festival began from the Song Dynasty, and has become one of China’s major festivals since Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Custom of Mid-Autumn Festival

1) Enjoy full moon
The custom originates in moon-worshiping, and became popular in Tang Dynasty. Until the Song Dynasty, enjoying full moon has been a fixed activity and this folk activity was officially designated as Mid-Autumn Festival.

2) Worship moon
Moon-worshiping is an ancient custome. Set a large incense table, put the moon cake, watermelon, apples, jujubes, plums and grapes on the table, place the moon statue towards the moon, and the whole family worship the moon one by one. Then the wife carve the moon cake into several pieces with the same size for the whole family member and those who are out of home are not exceptional.

3) Eat crab and mooncake
Mid-Autumn Festival banquet was used to be very generous especially in the royal family, such as eating crabs. The moon cake is indispensable in Mid-Autumn Festival, which has grown up to two-feet-diameter and 10-kilo-weight in the Qing Palace.

4) Play lantern
Mid-Autumn Festival is one of Chinese three Lantern Festivals. Of course, the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival is not as large as the Lantern Festival, and lantern playing happens only inside the family.

5) The fire dragon dance
Fire Dragon Dance is the feature of Hong Kong Festival Moon Cakes’ traditional customs. From the evening of lunar August 14, there will be a three-night grand fire dragon dance in Causeway Bay area. The fire dragon is more than 70 meters long, with 32 body section bounded together with pearl grass and filled with longevity incense.


Source : http://www.easyseosolution.com/blog/chinese-festival/moon-festival

Vietnam – China Mid-Autumn Festival 2010

17, 18, 19 and in the evening of 20 Sep 2010
Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

Vietnamese in 2010 is going to celebrate mid autumn festival that will take place in Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. The event of the festival that is also known as Festival moon cakes is organized by the cooperation of Museum of Yunnan ethics, Yunnan Opera Institute (China) and Chinese Embassy in Vietnam.

This is the first time Chinese opera has been performed in Vietnam Museum of Ethnology with excerpts of “Journey to the West” and also “boi singing”, a kind of traditional activities of Vietnamese Southerners. Besides, other performance includes lion – dragon dance and water puppet.

In this year’s programme, there will be many Vietnamese and Chinese traditional games and toys. 3 day programme is also an opportunity to enjoy Chinese tea as well as try baking 2 countries’ traditional cakes (mooncake). Other activities such as cultural screenings, singing and dancing, etc will also be carried out in this event.

This is the third time Vietnam Museum of Ethnology exchanges Vietnamese culture with other countries’ in the occasion of Mid-Autumn Festival. Before, Korean and Japanese Mid-Autumn Festival were also presented in 2007 and 2009 consecutively.

Ticket

Ticket price
Adults: VND 25,000
Children: VND 3,000
Students: VND 5,000
Tickets are available at the museum.

Source : http://hanoigrapevine.com/2010/09/vietnam-china-mid-autumn-festival-2010/

Hungry Ghost Festival

Beside Mid autumn festival (also known as Festival moon cakes), Chinese people also celebrate Hungry Ghost Festival which falls on the 7th month of the lunar calendar. It is believed that the gates of hell will be open on this month. Ghosts will be free to roam around on earth.

So, what do you do during the Hungry Ghost Festival?
If on Festival moon cakes, we offer mooncake as the special food, on Hungry Ghost Festival we will have to make a lot of offerings to the ghost. Offerings come in term of food, hell note (fake money) & burning joss sticks.

Some will make offerings to their relative that have deceased by burning paper houses, shirts, money, hell notes and more.

These paper offerings are interesting. They can come in the form of houses, maids, LV bags, iphone, shirt, shoes, bicycle, tv, dvd and anything you can think of. You can even pay somebody who is in this kind of business to customize anything for you.

I really want to take pictures of some of these paper products and hell notes for this lens. However, I dun think I am comfortable doing it. Sorry.

You can watch a ge tai during the hungry ghost festival. These performance are setup on temporary stage around the housing estate. You cannot sit on the first row at a ge tai because these seat are for the ghost. These performances are usually held at night for the ghost.

You can participate in an auction dinner if there is one. It is believe that these items in the auction are blessed and will bring you good luck if you win them home.

Hungry Ghost Festival Superstition & Myths
1. Do not wear anything black so that ghost will not come close to you.
2. Do not wear anything that has a bell on it. Example, bracelet or charms with bells. Bells attract ghost.
3. Do not hang out your clothes at night. New ghost that are being blown onto your clothes will not be able to come out. Wearing these clothes will not be good for you.
4. All clothing should be kept inside the house before 5pm.
5. Umbrellas should be kept close and outside the house. No umbrellas should be kept inside the house.
6. Do not go out at night.
7. No swimming during the 7th month. The water ghosts will pull you into the water.
8. Do not go to the beach on the 7th month.
9. Do not let anyone pad on your shoulder. If someone does that to you, do not turn and look.
10. You should not whistle, sing or scream during the 7th month. You will attract ghost.
11. No wedding/engagement preparation during the 7th month. Of course, no wedding and engagement to be held on the 7th month.
12. Do not buy any property, do any renovation, or move your house during the 7th month.
13. Do not turn and look when someone calls your name at night.
14. Do not step or cross over ashes and offering for the ghost.
15. Do not comment/complain/feedback on the smell or burnt incense paper flying all over the place.
16. Do not travel oversea during the 7th month.

Source : http://www.squidoo.com/hungryghostfestival

Mid Autumn Festival Stories Beside Chang E

Jade Rabbit Making Heavenly Medicine
This legend is considered to be an extension of Chang'e Flying to the Moon. It tells about three sages who transformed themselves into pitiful old men. One day they met a fox, a monkey and a rabbit, and they begged for food. The fox and the monkey shared their food with the old men; but the rabbit, with nothing to share, jumped into a blazing fire to offer his own flesh instead. The sages were so touched by the rabbit's kindness that they sent it to live in the Moon Palace, where it became the Jade Rabbit. Chang'e, who lived alone after arriving in the moon, liked the Jade Rabbit at the first sight, and therefore kept it company. As the time went by, Chang'e and Jade Rabbit became inseparable friends. Hearing about the story of Chang'e and Hou Yi, the Jade Rabbit felt sympathetic to them and decided to make a special heavenly medicine, which could help Chang'e return to Earth. Unfortunately, the Jade Rabbit has still not been able to make it even though he has worked hard for thousands of years. Observing the moon on the Mid-Autumn Day carefully, we can still see the Jade Rabbit making his heavenly medicine.

Wu Gang Chopping the Cherry Bay
There is also another story about the Festival moon cakes. Many years ago, Wu Gang, an immortal in Heaven, was punished to chop down the cherry bay in the moon for his serious mistakes. The cherry bay in the moon was extremely luxuriant and sturdy with a height of 5167 meters. It would also heal up as soon as it was chopped, which made Wu Gang's work last for thousands of years.

The mid autumn festival has many traditions and activities in which people express how much their families mean to them, and how much they miss absent members and enjoying mooncake as the symbol of the legends.

Source : http://www.chinatravel.com/facts/chinese-festivals/traditional-chinese-festival/Middle-Autumn-Festival.htm#1