Every year on the 15th day of the 8th month (八月十五) on lunar calendar, Chinese celebrates mid-autumn festival or mooncake festival. This year, the festival falls on October 3, Saturday.
As a child, mid-autumn festival (中秋节) was my favorite Chinese festivity, second to only Chinese New Year. That was the time of year when I got to play with my new toy–a lantern made of brightly colorful and transparent sheets where the candle inside it would shine through. And then, there were mooncakes and special mid-autumn only foods such as sugar-glazed fried taro and various sweet candies. Mid-autumn festival was always so much fun as my family would gather together under the radiant and glistening full moon, did our prayers and had a feast of mooncakes and other offerings…
Fast forward to the present, I couldn’t even remember the last time I celebrated mid-autumn festival, but starting this year, I intend to make it into an annual ritual. The Asian markets and Chinese pastry shops are teeming with great selections of mooncakes, with so many imported and “innovative” varieties from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China that I was thoroughly overwhelmed. I then reflected on the fact that I have always loved mooncakes from Malaysia–simple, traditional, delicious, and stay true to originality. I bought two boxes of mooncakes online: Oversea (Hai Wai Tian/海外天) Mooncakes and Tai Thong (大同) Mooncakes (halal).
They are great mooncakes from trusted brands in Malaysia. If you are celebrating mid-autumn festival this year, do try out Malaysian mooncakes. I will guarantee that they won’t disappoint!