Kelly Wu, Himani Gubbi, & Emily Becker ‘27
Staff Editors
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, began as a tradition during the Shang Dynasty in China (c. 1600–1046 BCE). As the legend goes, Hou Yi was a talented archer tasked with shooting down nine of the ten suns in the sky to save the world from unbearable heat.[1] When his mission was complete, he was rewarded with an elixir of immortality. Neither he nor his wife, Chang-e, wished to take the elixir as there was only enough for one of them. However, when a thief entered their home, Chang-e drank the elixir to keep it out of the hands of the thief and ascended to the moon as the Moon Goddess. Missing his wife, Hou Yi started making food offerings, including mooncakes, to the moon and worshiping it in hopes of being reunited with his love. While many different versions of the story exist, the significance of the moon in Chinese culture has continued to be a theme present in modern celebrations of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Held on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the Mid-Autumn Festival landed on Tuesday, September 17 this year. Nowadays, the celebration is a harvest festival, akin to American Thanksgiving, where families gather, hang lanterns, host a feast, lay out offerings for the moon, and eat mooncakes!
Event Review
Sometimes, the reward for a long night of homework is a mooncake, a lantern, and some intergenerational advice. Such was the case last Tuesday, when the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (“APALSA”) held its annual Mid-Autumn Festival. If you braved the rain to trek all the way to the Law School, or you stumbled out of the library in a daze after reading a rambling SCOTUS dissent, you would have come across a lively celebration in Room WB 104. A full spread of snacks—including the much sought-after mooncakes and one of my childhood staples, Pockys—abounded. A lantern tutorial video ran on loop (which was surprisingly mesmerizing), as students congregated to assemble their own lanterns.
APALSA goes out of its way to incorporate 1L students into the club before the school year formally begins, meaning that by the time the festival rolled around, many 1Ls had been paired with mentors and had attended a few events. The gathering was punctuated by mentor-mentee reunions, advice about LRW memos, and stories of 3L shenanigans for the 1Ls and 2Ls to look forward to. The festival was as much a celebration of local community as it was a recognition of a larger tradition.
Mooncake Review
It started on a chaotic note: “Unfortunately it seems there was a miscommunication . . . they have already put out the moon[cakes] on the free food table! Get ‘em before they’re gone!” said the message in the APALSA Groupme. The precious mooncakes went up for the ravenous student body to consume a whole seven hours before promised. After pulling some favors from my friends (shoutout to them), I was able to get my hands on two mini mooncakes—strawberry and black sesame with walnuts (or so I presume from the fillings). Not to fret though, there were also pieces of larger traditional mooncakes at the Mid-Autumn Festival event—classic lotus seed paste and red bean.
Starting with the mini mooncakes, the smaller size led to a more-pastry-than-filling mouthful, the crust chewy with a bit of a sweet and crumbly finish. They were golden but lacked a bit of crispness lost to the moist filling and packaging. The strawberry flavor was sweetened a bit too much, which overpowered the delicate flavor of strawberry. The black sesame and walnut flavor was a more exciting experience, with the texture of whole black sesame seeds and crushed walnuts adding some bite and texture, and the rich nuttiness mixing with the sweet paste filling and crust. There were also nuggets of crystallized citrus that added an acidic note to cut through the nuttiness. Overall, a 5/10 and 7/10, respectively.
The larger traditional mooncakes, however, stole the show. Even the smallest sliver of either the red bean or the lotus seed was rich and decadent with the crust offering a textural contrast. The red bean was almost chocolatey rich with a deep umami sweetened lightly to bring out the lightness of the beans. The lotus seed was nutty, similar to sesame seed paste, and a little less ganache-y in texture than the bean. Both were lovely little morsels to celebrate a wonderful Mid-Autumn Festival. 9/10.
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[1] A legend that has enduring relevance.