The true story behind Mooncake Festival

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Every year today, I would sit together with my families and have a festive Mooncake celebration dinner. Afterwards, we would head to our awesome-and-cool-hang-out-place and enjoy some mooncakes, a.k.a ''月饼'' in Mandarin. My grandma's house also store some exotic soothing Chinese-tea which alongside the mooncakes, it's a dessert enjoyment I can only drool upon now.

Nowadays, there are so many types of mooncakes available where shops and food industries forgo the traditional brown-crust and come out with so many other types i.e : soft-skin, jelly type, etc. Got ice-cream some more!! Check it out here.

However, most of us never know the true story behind those sweet delicacy. We only want what is important and that is having those yummy cakes inside our tummies. Ergo, I decided to find out for myself, what is behind those cakes which is specially named ''mooncake'' and not something like ''tiramisu-cake''.

Apparently, the Ming people in China those days are very well screwed. This is because of those Mongolian rulers in the Yuan Dynasty screwed the Chinese so much that they believed if they did not eat the special ''mooncake'', they will die from a deadly plague. The Chinese that time were not smart enough to use iPods yet so they thought it was real and there was a huge distribution of those mooncakes. However, inside those special mooncakes were secret messages coordinating the revolt on the 15th day of eighth lunar month. It's like the now fortune cookies except this is about a war, not who your wife is going to be next time.

Another method of hiding the message was printed in the surface of mooncakes. Then each 4 mooncakes must be cut into 4 parts each and the decoder must rearrange those mooncakes in order to read the hidden message. It sounds so intriguing and cool. However, the coolest part is that the decoder had to destroy the message after reading it eating it. Eat and destroy!

For the unhumourous and boring real version, click here. Now, here is the messed up part. I wasn't told of that history or tale behind those mooncakes. Instead, I got told a different version! I still remembered my old-relatives, i.e grandma, grandaunt etc. all used to sit around the living-room sipping coffee or tea and tell me a whole different version of how mooncake festival came about.

Once upon a time, there was a couple named Joshua and ********. They both lived together happily and loved each other so much that Joshua wouldn't mind giving up his life for her.

However, Joshua had a sickness and only one special pearl can heal him completely. So one day, Joshua's partner flew to the heaven's palace and stole a precious pearl from one of the God's in heaven. Both Joshua and his beloved were so happy they didn't notice that the Gods had sent an army to hunt for them.

In the mean time, both of them continued to live like a golden, admirable couple. They always go to the beach and enjoy the gorgeous sea-breeze coupled with the soothing waves. Anyways, the God's army found them and hunted them. Joshua was strong with powers and tried to fight them but hell hath no fury like fighting with God's people so in the end, Joshua lost.

Knowing how lovely they both are together, the Gods went out to punish both Joshua and ******** by separating them forever. They put Joshua on the moon up above the sky where there is a special tree; whereas his wife was locked up somewhere in the heaven's jail. The only way they can see each other again is to cut down the special tree and break the curse. However, this special tree was binded with powers so whenever Joshua's axe leaves the tree after it has been cut, the tree ''heals'' just like Wolverine. Making it impossible to be cut down.

Missing the lovely couple so much, those Earthly people made paper lanterns with candles within and tried to find Joshua. In the end, the Gods told them that Joshua and ******** were punished in the heavens above. Ergo, the Earthlings made cakes to acknowlegde the deep love story of Joshua and his wife. And because Joshua is on the moon, they called it ''Mooncake''.
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This was the story told to me and I thought it was real! I was 6 or 7 then but I seriously thought it was real. I even stared at the moon during Mooncake Festival to see if that love-sick guy (whose name appears to be the same as mine) is still chopping the sole tree on the moon above our sky.

There are alot of other versions of how Mooncake Festival came about. There is the Chang'e and Hou Yi and there is the Wu Gang and the Cherry Bay and there is also the The Jade Rabbit one. If your story is as crazy as mine, please do share yours with me.

Somehow, I loved the story my grandma told me more.

P.S - Whatever the story is, I love my mooncakes. Happy Mooncake Festival!

Double P.S - Happy October!

You know you love me, JOsh