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The
Legend of Eating Mooncakes
Mooncakes symbolize the gathering of friends and family and are an
indispensable
part of the offerings made to the Earth God, Tu Ti Kung. According
to popular belief, the custom of eating mooncakes began in the
late Yuan dynasty. As the story goes, the Han people of that time
resented
the Mongol rule of the Yuan Dynasty and revolutionaries, led by
Chu Yuan-chang, plotted to
usurp
the throne.
Chu needed to find a way of uniting the people to
revolt on the same day without letting the Mongol rulers learn of
the plan. Chu's close advisor, Liu Po-wen, finally came up with a
brilliant idea. A rumor was spread that a plague was
ravaging
the land and that only by eating a special mooncake distributed by
the revolutionaries could the disaster be prevented. The mooncakes
were then distributed only to the Han people, who found, upon
cutting the cakes open, the message "Revolt on the fifteenth of
the eighth moon." Thus informed, the people rose together on the
designated day to overthrow the Yuan, and since that time
mooncakes have become an integral part of the Mid-Autumn Festival. |
