For Chang Lee, Chuseok is all about the family. Chuseok is the Mid-Autumn Festival for Lee, who is Korean American and president of the Korean American Association of New Jersey.
“They call it Korean Thanksgiving,” Lee said.
The festival — celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month on the lunar calendar, this year Sept. 29 — is an eight-day holiday in East Asian culture. It is a time to give thanks for the fall harvest and to spend time with family.
Countries such as China, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand all celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival wishing for harmony and prosperity. Here in the United States, Asian American communities host events throughout the fall season.
While family and harvest are celebrated during mid-autumn, the star of the holiday season is the mooncake. It’s not just a singular style of mooncake. Each country and region boast its own distinct flavor when it comes to the autumn treat. Mooncakes are pastries, either sweet or savory. They are round, square or even moon-shaped.
The songpyeon is a Korean mooncake shaped in a small half-moon, stuffed with sweet fillings such as sesame seeds. They are traditionally steamed on a bed of pine needles, as the name “song” in Korean means pine tree.
In China and in Chinese American communities, mooncakes vary by region. Beijing-style, served in northern China, is dense and sweet. The Shanghai-style cake is savory and filled with pork, with a pastry crust. The Cantonese-style is a blend of savory and sweet, with salted double yolks and lotus paste, and is the most common style served at restaurants and festivals. Because the Cantonese cakes are rich and dense, they are usually cut into quarters before serving. The tradition is to snack on them while sipping tea and gazing up at the moon. Many styles of mooncakes have one or two salty duck egg yolks inside them to symbolize the moon.
Making mooncake is an elaborate process that most home cooks do not take on. But Nancy Loo,…
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