Moon Cake Festival, Malaysia – Interesting History
Malaysia is a multicultural society and hence through out the year you will find people celebrating some festival or the other. While reading about festivals of Malaysia I came across this unique Moon Cake Festival, a festival that celebrates unity!
Moon Cake Festival
The story of how this festival got this unique name:
Moon Cake festival is very interesting. It originated during the rule of Yuan dynasty (A.D. 1280-1368). People were not happy with the then rulers of China, the Mongolians. Rebels plotted to overthrow the government. They chalked out a clever plan to convey messages to garner support. Rebels baked and distributed cakes. Messages of the outline of the attack were baked into the cakes, thus the word got through and villagers got united. On the night of the mid-autumn festival, the rebels and the villagers together successfully overthrew the government and established the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.).
(Pic: Beehive Communications)
This festival is known by other names too like: Lantern Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a traditional festival for both the Han and minority nationalities. The festival originates from the ancient ritual of sacrificing to Moon Goddess the year end harvest. Families reunite to celebrate and give thanks for the year’s bounty. As per traditions, thirteen moon cakes are stacked in a pyramid shape to represent thirteen moons of a complete year. Today this festival is celebrated by sending them to relatives, business partners, bosses and customers. According to solar calendar, this festival normally falls between the second week of September and the second week of October. You can plan your trip to Malaysia during this period to enjoy their celebrations firsthand.
Wonderful…I love the story!
Hugs
SueAnn
wow! such an interesting story! and the cakes look so tempting!
Such an interesting history!! Who would have thought of the cakes to be the uniting factor!?!
A cake to bring down an empire? Interesting cake. Nice post Indrani.
http://rajniranjandas.blogspot.in/2012/11/fort-chapora.html
hmmmmmmmm right I shall keep that in mind when i book my tickets for the place 🙂
Bikram's
Interesting festival…yum..yum!:)
Interesting, and looks like there is a little bit for me, yummy.
A very intersting post and history.
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers!
Himanshu Nagpal | Being Traveler
Being Traveler