Chinese flying lanterns - 孔明燈 (kongmingdeng)

After the Mid-Autumn festival (中秋節) celebration dinner the night before, all of us went into the garden to see the lanterns as well as the fireworks that were being set off by the neighbours. We also wanted to send off some Chinese flying lanterns or 孔明燈  (kongmingdeng).

The Chinese flying lanterns - 孔明燈  (kongmingdeng) - are miniature hot air balloons with their own fuel. The lanterns are of paper with a holder for the fuel. Candles were used in the past but now, blocks of flammable wax are the main sources of the fuel.

 

It was said to have been invented by Zhuge Liang (诸葛亮) (181-234 A.D.) and who was the Chancellor of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period of China. The flying lantern was also named after him - he was also known as 孔明 (Kong Ming). Zhuge Liang was already famous as a military strategist but only after  Luo Guanzhong (罗贯中) published his famous classic, Romance of Three Kingdoms (三国演义) in the 14th century, did  he became a god-like hero to the Chinese readers. 

According to history, Zhuge Liang (诸葛亮) floated thousands of these Chinese flying lantern (孔明燈 - kongmingdeng) across the army camps of enemy kingdoms to frighten and confuse their soldiers before launching his armies against them.

Today, we use these Chinese flying lantern (孔明燈 - kongmingdeng) for a more leisurely pursuit - FUN!  It is also popular with the Chinese to write their wishes on the lanterns and then sending their wishes up to heaven.

Mid-Autumn Festival II or 中秋節 II

Today being Mid-Autumn Festival or 中秋節 (Zhongqiujie), I wonder how many of you are old enough to remember this mooncake as being the most commonly available and eaten ...

This is the White Mooncake and made of rice flour, sugar and water. This is the main choice available for normal folks in the not-so-distant poorer days of yesteryears! The slightly more expensive variety comes with roasted black sesame seeds in the cake mix.

When I was a young boy, my mum used to make them at home. The rice flour was toasted and then knead into a dough with caster sugar and water. 

The two-pieces mould was of brass - a flat round pan with a heavy top that fitted nicely into the pan. The top piece had the design for the mooncakes and there were a number of top pieces with different designs. A weighed ball of dough was placed into the base pan and then shaped to fit the base. The top piece was then placed into the pan and pressure was applied on the top piece of the mould to fix the shape of the mooncake and to create the pattern. Once done, you have the white moon cake. 

Sad to say, the brass moulds are no longer available - mum threw them out years ago once such mooncakes cakes became available commercially at a reasonable price! :-(

Nowadays, such mooncakes are rarely eaten and, if eaten, it's purely for nostalgia - considering that it is not very tasty, just sweet.  Still, eating it brings back memories of a long lost childhood. 

Such mooncakes are still in production though as they are being used for religious ceremonies on this day - the mooncake in the picture was used for our ancestor worship ceremony this morning.

Tonight, we will have a family gathering - steamboat, BBQ and, of course, the lanterns for the children. Part of the fun will also include the release of the Chinese flying lanterns (孔明燈) (kongmingdeng).

Enjoy!

Mid-Autumn Festival - 中秋節

Tomorrow is the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month and is thus the Mid-Autumn Festival or 中秋節 (Zhongqiujie)。There are lots of legends and stories related to this festival - so if you are interested, just google for them! Mooncakes are traditionally Chinese pastries generally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. As for the fillings, it looks like the variety is endless - so I will not write more here!

Here to the home-made mooncakes!

 

The green one is the snow skin mooncake and the brown one is a baked mooncake. The filling inside the baked one is of lotus seed paste and melon seeds. These days, most of the fillings used are low sugar.

This is a small one - about 4 cm in diameter and the filling is a pineapple paste. Most, if not all, the commercial pineapple paste available now  are too sweet for me.

What is  Mid-Autumn Festival  without melon seed and, of course, the pamelo?

 Actually, my main interest in mooncakes is not in the actual moon cakes but in the moulds that produce the moon cakes!  Below is a  variety of the moulds - both wooden (previously hand-crafted, but now machined) and plastic - used for making mooncakes.

This is a wooden mould and is one of the four-in-one type, meaning that the four faces of the wooden block have four different patterns.

 

 

 

The following wooden moulds are stand alone units. 

The unicorn ..... 

The pig ....

The large square ....

The large oval and small round ....

These days , plastic moulds are also available and they are generally about 1/5 the price of the wooden ones though some of the better wooden ones fetch very much high prices. Plastic ones are easier to use BUT the quality of the relief in the patterns on the mooncakes is sharply reduced.

The large and small round moulds ....

 
The sow and five piglets ....  

 

In recent years, various manufacturers have also introduced the plastic moulds with springs for easy release of the mooncakes from the moulds ...

 

 

 

It is important to note that all the moulds seen here are for the home users. They are not used by the professional mooncake makers! Each of the professional mooncake makers will have their own set of hand-crafted wooden moulds with their own intricate unique patterns - costing thousands of ringgits, if not more. 

Here to a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!