Zhong qiu jie 中秋节 (Mid Autumn Festival)
Traditional Festivals are one of the strongest bonds that reinforces the cultural identity of the chinese and are important events for the Chinese Community. To celebrate these festivities, CAV organizes several family events for members and the wider community.
This festival dates back as early as Zhou Dynasty. It started as celebrations at the end of harvests in autumn, to give thanks and offerings to the gods for providing good fortune. As the moon at mid autumn (in the Northern Hemisphere) was roundest and brightest, it was also a symbol of family gathering (tuan yuan团圆). By Tang Dynasty, the Mid Autumn celebration has become a regular event. There are several activities and legends associated with this festival.
On the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, family members gather around a table in the courtyard. The table would be full of food, including moon cakes and melon seeds. After making offerings to the moon (god) with a wish, family members would talk all night under the moon light while enjoying the food and recounting the legends relating to the moon. The legend of Chang’e ( 嫦娥) is one of them.
This year, the CAV is going to be celebrating the mid-Autumn festival a little later than we had planned, but its still going to be a great time for the family.
Online Programme
25 October 2020
1:00 – 2:00 pm
The Legend of the mid-Autumn Festival Story
A mythical world with 10 suns. A super archer. A fairy. A beautiful wife. A love story. What could go wrong? How did this lead to Moon Cakes and Lanterns? Come hear and see what happens when Ramona narrates The Legend of the Mid Autumn Festival.
Lantern Making
Ever want to make your own Chinese Lantern? Ramona will show you some designs to make a working lantern, which you can personalise and light up for your friends to see!
Ramona will also take questions on Zoom, after the demonstration!
The recording of Opening messages and the Legend of the Mid-Autumn Festival/Lantern Making with Ramona is now available.
2:30 – 4:00 pm
Healthy Moon Cake Cooking Class with Lillie Giang
Who says Moon cakes are hard to make? Ever wanted to customise your own moon cakes to give to friends? Lillie will teach you how to make healthier and delicious moon cakes with less sugar and fat, using traditional skins as well as snow skin. DIY red bean moon cakes? Lillie will show you how!
Lillie is going to try and make ALL these moon cakes in 1 hour. Can she do it? Does she use natural ingredients or a packet mix? Is she going to use lap cheong in her mooncakes??? Watch to find out. Lillie will stick around to answer live questions after her cooking class on Zoom.
The recording of "Healthy Moon Cake Cooking Class with Lillie Giang" is now available.
Lillie’s Mooncake recipe
Can be found here. (So you can cook along with Lillie if you like)
Tried the Recipe? Let us know!
Update (27 Oct): We will no longer be tortured by photos of those lovely moon cakes coming in. Yes, we have now received 8 entries from the first 8 bakers of the moon cakes. Lillie has received so much interest from the moon cake class that she is literally over the moon! For the first 8, we will be sending out the packets to you when we have received them from “My Blue Tea”. For the others, you gotta be quicker next time. So head over to My Blue Tea before they run out of stock themselves!
Looking to make Pandan flavoured or Blue coloured Moon Cakes ?
Lillie told us about her Sydney based supplier “My Blue Tea” which stock these plant based products. They have kindly agreed to give us a whopping 20% discount if you use the coupon code “CAV20” with online check out. They did say “One time use. Not applicable for gifts”. The offer expires end November 2020 so its a great time to think about Christmas gifts for your chef friends, as its nearly impossible to get the blue butterfly pea flowers in Australia. They provide free delivery for orders above $69/- (you can combine items).
More on the Lillie-My Blue Tea-CAV story when we first asked Lillie to do the Zoom segment, here.
Ramona Chua has been closely associated with the CAV since its inception. She has held numerous positions on the Executive Committee including President in 2013. She was also Principal of the CAV school from 2008-2012.
As a trained teacher, Ramona enjoys working with children to inspire their imagination and to be creative
Lillie Giang is a guest presenter on The Cooks Pantry (Channel 10), a guest chef on Channel 7’s “My Asian Banquet” and is an advisor and in-store pop-up presenter for numerous well known supermarkets and shopping centres.
Lillie was born into a family of serious foodies in Vietnam, so the calling to food was all around her from the get-go. She credits her love of food and success to her father and maternal grandmother who taught her to eat, cook and live well.
