Mid-Autumn Festival: Crochet Mooncake Amigurumi・中秋节: 钩针编织月饼

大家好！祝福中秋佳节快乐。但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。

Once again, it is the Mid-Autumn Festival, or Zhong Qiu Jie中秋节. As mentioned in last year's post, this traditional Chinese festival is commonly known as the Mooncake Festival in Singapore and Malaysia, as the traditional food eaten during this festival is the mooncake, or yue bing月饼. I learnt recently, rather randomly through an Instagram story, that the mooncake is also a kueh — namely, kueh bulan (also spelt kuih bulan) or kueh bulan lapan in Malay.

The Mid-Autumn Festival and mooncakes are of Chinese origin. The festival is celebrated by ethnic Chinese worldwide, and also in cultures within the East Asian cultural sphere. For instance, it is celebrated as Tsukimi月見 in Japan, Chuseok추 석 and Hangawi한 가 위 in South Korea, and Tết Trung Thu in Vietnam. In Singapore and Malaysia, the festival and its customs were brought over by Chinese traders, settlers and migrants to our region.

Mid-Autumn Festival 2022: crochet mooncake amigurumi (own pattern, still wip) (IG).

The moon is an integral part of the Mid-Autumn Festival. There are a few legends behind the festival, but the best known version is of the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e and her husband, the mythical archer Hou Yi, who shot down the 9 out of 10 suns that were ravaging the Earth, thus saving the people from a terrible drought. For this deed, he was rewarded by the Heavens with the elixir of life (or immortality) which he hid at home. One version states that he was reluctant to take the elixir and leave his wife behind, another states that he planned to share it with her. However, one of his disciples deceived him and tried to steal the elixir while he was away. Chang'e was forced to consume it to prevent the disciple from taking it. When Hou Yi learnt of what happened, he was heart-broken and called out to the moon for Chang'e. He then noticed the moon was exceptionally bright that night, and saw a figure that looked like Chang'e, and so he offered favourite cakes and fruits to her. Since then, as legends go, people have done the same during the Mid-Autumn Festival to honour her.

Crochet mooncake (own pattern) — traditional baked mooncake with lotus paste and single yolk filling (IG).

Legends aside, the origins of the Mid-Autumn Festival lie in the ancient Chinese practice of celebrating the harvest during the autumn full moon (the harvest moon), a practice dating back to the Shang dynasty (c.1600-1045 BC). The first written reference to the term "mid-autumn" (zhōng qiū中秋) was in the ancient Chinese text, the Rites of Zhou (Zhōu Lǐ周禮), an anthology of rituals of the Western Zhou dynasty (1045-771 BC). However, the celebration of the festival, as we understand it today with lanterns and mooncakes under the moonlight, only came about during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), said to have been started by the Emperor Xuanzong (685-756 AD). It was later, during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127 AD), that it became a popular festival for common folk and the date was officially designated as the 15th day of the 8th lunar month.

Like the traditional festivals Chinese New Year and Dongzhi, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also a time for family reunions, as symbolised by the full moon (a symbolism explained in the tangyuan amigurumi post). On the day of the festival, it is customary for families to gather together. Some families take part in organised festival events in Chinatown, while some observe all the traditional activities at home. They light and hang lanterns, and admire the full moon while enjoying mooncakes over tea, an activity that dates back to the Tang dynasty.

Teochew mooncake, home baked by my MIL at a baking workshop she attended.

As mentioned last year, the 2 main types of mooncakes that are popular here are the traditional baked mooncake and the snow skin mooncake, both are Cantonese style mooncakes. I neglected to mention last year that there is also the Teochew mooncake. It is also popular here in Singapore, though not as widely available as the Cantonese style ones. The Teochew mooncake is easily distinguished by its domed/rounded appearance, and is made of flaky spiral pastry, typically with yam or mung bean filling.

By and large, it seems like snow skin mooncakes are preferred here, whether as gifts or to consume. We certainly have a lot of options here when it comes to snow skin mooncakes... The snow skin mooncake actually came about around the 1960s in Hong Kong, and was known as crystal mooncakes (shuǐ jīng yuè bǐng水晶月饼) until the 1980s when it became more commonly known as snow skin mooncakes (bīng pí yuè bǐng冰皮月饼, literally "ice skin mooncake"). These days in Singapore, both the baked mooncakes and snow skin mooncakes have various unconventional ingredients and creative flavour variations. Besides the fillings, it's also pretty common to find various ingredients incorporated into the glutinous rice based skin of snow skin mooncakes, e.g. fruits, pandan, tea, coffee or chocolate, black sesame, bamboo charcoal, etc., to add flavour and colour to the mooncake.

Raffles Singapore Champagne Truffle Snow Skin Mooncake.

The mooncake amigurumi for last year's Mid-Autumn Festival was made using the mooncake pattern by PurpJe. This year, I tried creating my own pattern, and made one of each type — a baked mooncake with lotus paste and a single yolk, and a pandan snow skin mooncake with durian filling. Honestly, the pattern I made is still a work-in-progress, and needs tweaking and revising... so it is not posted.

Crochet mooncake (own pattern) — traditional baked mooncake with lotus paste and single yolk.

Tried making 2 different decorative tops for the mooncakes, a simple lined one for the baked mooncake amigurumi, and a floral one for the snow skin mooncake amigurumi.

Crochet mooncake (own pattern) — pandan snow skin mooncake with durian filling.

Also made a mooncake slice, another prototype piece while working on my mooncake crochet pattern, which I'm still revising. Although my pattern isn't ready yet, there is a free mooncake slice pattern by Genuine Mudpie!

Crochet mooncake slice (own pattern) — traditional baked mooncake with lotus paste and single yolk (IG).

Earlier this year, I bought a tea mooncake amigurumi pattern by YarnMe88 (Khanh Nguyen), available for purchase on Ravelry and Etsy. I've yet to use the pattern but had a quick look-through, and like it a lot. It looks a lot like a real mooncake with the floral patterned top and fluted side. Maybe I'll try it out for next year's Mid-Autumn Festival....

Materials & Tools:

• Mooncake amigurumi pattern - my own patterns, which are still works-in-progress. For other mooncake amigurumi patterns, please check out the free mooncake pattern by PurpJe, free mooncake slice pattern by Genuine Mudpie, and tea mooncake pattern by YarnMe88 (purchase on Ravelry and Etsy).
• 2.5mm Clover Amour crochet hook
• Yarn: Scheepjes Catona No.208 Yellow Gold, No.383 Ginger Gold, No.522 Primrose, No.507 Chocolate; and Sirdar Happy Cotton DK No.779 Fizz.
• Polyester fibrefill stuffing and cardboard