Memories of children
One year, I asked her why she told us that. She said that the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month will have the brightest moon of the year. So it will be easier to look at the constellations in the sky than in other months. Looking at the moon, the weather, and astronomy will help us estimate the winter weather of that year. For farmers, the weather is the most important. Knowing the weather will help us know how to plant the winter and spring crops, and what crops to plant between the two seasons.
A little older, thinking back to what she said, I understood that moon-gazing is not only a spiritual and cultural activity but also closely linked to the productive life of our ancestors. Just like the proverb says: “If you want to eat rice in May, look for the full moon in August” or “If the moon is bright on the fourteenth day, you will get silkworms, if the moon is cloudy on the full moon, you will get winter-spring rice”.
In the last half decade, with many changes in life, the Mid-Autumn Festival has changed a lot like the country. Going through the period of "blocking rivers and banning markets" during the subsidy period, exploding with the development of the open days after the renovation period, then struggling before the globalization period when traditional cultural values were subjected to fierce interference from the outside... The Mid-Autumn Festival has changed quite a lot in both scale and form. And the interesting thing is that the change is clearly shown through the traditional dish of the nation, the Moon Cake.
Social transformation in a cake
Although the moon cake itself has had a history of ups and downs over thousands of years, there was a long time when moon cakes were quite simple and plain. Traditional moon cakes, formerly called moon cakes, include two types: baked cakes and soft cakes. Basically, these two types of traditional cakes only differ in the crust while using the same type of mixed filling ingredients, including: Chinese sausage, lotus seeds, pumpkin jam, lard, cashews, pumpkin seeds, melon seeds, sesame...
Nowadays, mixed fillings can no longer compete with the trend of soft fillings imported from other countries. Soft fillings are simple to make, not as sophisticated as mixed fillings, can be kept for a long time and have a light flavor, so they quickly won the hearts of many consumers. Popular soft fillings include lotus, green beans, taro, green tea... To make them more eye-catching and flavorful, the fillings also include ham or salted eggs. Recently, the exchange of culinary cultures has made the fillings include cheese, roast chicken, shark fin, abalone,...
Today, the Mid-Autumn Festival is no longer limited to the family. The moon cake has become an indispensable part for people to buy and give to grandparents, parents, friends, relatives and other benefactors as gifts. The shape, quality and price of the cake have begun to change greatly to suit the times. If in the past, the cake only had two shapes, round and square, following the theory of Chung cake - Day cake, round sky - square earth, today the moon cake has many new shapes.
It can be the shape of animals, the most popular of which is a herd of pigs symbolizing prosperity, or the shape of a carp symbolizing fortune and luck. The patterns on the cake can add wishes such as "Double Happiness", "Van Loc", "Cat Tuong" as a wish to the recipient. The color of the cake also changes over time to serve the taste of the buyer. If the traditional color of sticky rice cake is only white, baked cake is only dark yellow, now with food coloring and many types of additives such as green tea powder, taro, gac make the cake have many colors as desired. Although it is no longer true to the cultural meaning of the cake, this makes the Mid-Autumn Festival cake more eye-catching and youthful.
"Wealth gives birth to courtesy"
When I was a child, my grandfather once took me to visit a traditional cake factory. At that time, people who bought moon cakes only had the choice of choosing from traditional establishments that had been passed down through many generations. Seeing the workers diligently bending over the dough table, the cake mold table, their sweat dripping and the white powder sticking to their aprons and hoods, I could see the value of the cakes. Then, the times changed, and those traditional cake factories gradually disappeared.
With the explosion of information on the internet, making moon cakes is no longer a secret of traditional workshops or chefs. With just a computer connected to the internet, anyone can quickly have in hand the recipe for making moon cakes from traditional to modern new models. If these homemade workshops tend to focus on customers buying to enjoy because of the delicious, nutritious and cheap factors, the game of famous brands is different.
“Wealth gives birth to courtesy”, when the moon cake is no longer bought to enjoy but to give as a gift, a reward, the story turns completely around. Buyers always choose famous brands to send their trust and hope. Understanding this psychology, famous restaurants and hotels also participate in the moon cake market with the common characteristics of the cake being “unique, beautiful, expensive”. Besides the quality of the cake, the color and design of the cake box are also emphasized.
The act of “welcoming” Tet itself seems simple but has changed a lot. In the past, in the large yard, the whole family gathered together, cut the cake and broke the feast, the cake was simple but more delicious than ever. Nowadays, people do not need to wait until the full moon to break the feast anymore. The improvement of life makes buying cakes easier and faster. There are even bakeries that sell cakes all year round, in addition to serving culinary needs, they are also used for ceremonies. There are no longer fruit trays in the yard, alleys with cool tea cups, no longer children playing naughtily with elaborately “homemade” toys for months. Instead, there are sumptuous banquets with bottles of Western wine, Hang Ma street bustling with colors with new toys every year…
Conclude
The tiny moon cake can carry within it many great changes. Looking at a cake, watching a family “play” Mid-Autumn Festival, one can feel the development of an entire culture, economy and society. Because people will always want to reach a higher quality of life, Mid-Autumn Festival will certainly continue to undergo many changes. But even after many generations, moon cakes will still be the rich cakes for the whole family to share, and the colorful star lantern will still be a new toy in the memory of the child celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival for the first time.
