When is the Mid-Autumn Festival on 20 14 this year?

Mid-Autumn Festival in 20 14 is on September 8, 20 14.

Origin of Mid-Autumn Festival: The 15th day of the eighth lunar month is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival in China. "Moonlight is the brightest night of the year, and people thousands of miles away are enjoying it." . The Mid-Autumn Festival is named because its value is only half that of Sanqiu. It is also called the Reunion Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and August Festival. There are different views on the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival. According to experts' research, among the three traditional festivals in China-Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival came into being at the latest. However, like other traditional festivals, Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history, which can be traced back to the ancient custom of respecting the moon and autumn worship activities. In ancient China, there was a custom of offering sacrifices to the moon a long time ago. According to Zhou Li, in the Zhou Dynasty, there were activities such as "Mid-Autumn Night to Welcome the Cold" and "Autumn Equinox Moon (Yue Bai)". The mid-August of the lunar calendar is also the time for the harvest of autumn grain. People hold a series of ceremonies and celebrations to thank the gods for their protection. This is the so-called "Autumn Newspaper". Mid-Autumn Festival, the temperature is cool but not cold, the sky is crisp, and the moon is in the sky, which is the best season to enjoy the moon. As a result, the composition of the festival was gradually replaced by enjoying the moon, and the color of the sacrifice gradually faded, but the festival continued and was given new significance. During the evolution of Mid-Autumn Festival, ancient etiquette and customs combined many factors such as myths and legends in China traditional culture, and finally formed an important festival with rich connotations. Among them, the most famous is a series of myths surrounding the Moon Palace, such as the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, Wu Gang's felling of Guangxi, and Tang's visit to the Moon Palace. These endow the Moon Palace with a mysterious and gorgeous aura like colorful neon, which makes it full of romance. The custom of enjoying the moon and feasting in the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Tang Dynasty has always been quite popular. From the numerous poems describing the Mid-Autumn Festival handed down, we can see that the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon and other myths are all related to the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival may have become a fixed festival. However, at that time, the Mid-Autumn Festival seemed to be mainly about enjoying and playing with the moon, but it was not widely popular among the people. The formal formation of the Mid-Autumn Festival, especially its popularity among the people, should be in the Song Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty, August 15th was officially designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival, and seasonal foods such as "small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crispy glutinous rice inside" appeared, and festivals such as enjoying the moon, eating moon cakes, enjoying the moon and watching the tide became common. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival was as famous as New Year's Day and became the second largest traditional festival in China after the Spring Festival. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, every family should set up a "moonlight position" to prepare melon and fruit moon cakes, which must be round and cut into lotus-shaped teeth. Moonlight paper is on sale in the market, with designs such as Moon God and Jade Rabbit painted on it. After the festival, burn paper and distribute fruitcakes to every family member. Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunion. People give moon cakes to each other to express their good wishes, and many families hold banquets to enjoy the moon, which is a grand occasion of the festival. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival has played an increasingly important role in people's lives, not only in all parts of the country, but also among many ethnic minorities in China and Southeast Asia. On the basis of enjoying the moon and eating moon cakes, various festivals such as "selling male prostitutes", "planting Mid-Autumn Festival", "dragon dancing" and "walking on the moon" have gradually developed in various places, making the Mid-Autumn Festival, as a traditional festival in China, more culturally attractive.

There are many kinds of moon cakes, such as egg yolk lotus paste stuffing, bean paste stuffing, black sesame paste stuffing, chestnut paste stuffing and so on. Here, I will share my favorite method of making moon cakes filled with bean paste. Other moon cakes are similar, and I believe you will soon learn to make your own delicious moon cakes.

Tools/raw materials

Cake crust:100g flour, 70g invert syrup, 30g peanut oil and 2g water.

Stuffing: The total amount of chestnut sauce and red bean sauce is about ***800g.

Steps/methods

Mix syrup with water, add peanut oil and mix thoroughly. Add flour, cut and mix evenly, do not stir in circles to prevent dough gluten. The mixed dough should be as soft as the earlobe.

Put the evenly stirred dough into a fresh-keeping bag and let it stand for at least 1 hour. In the meantime, you can divide the stuffing. My mold is 50g, and the leather filling is 2: 8, so the filling is 40g. After the skin is still, it is divided into 10g. According to the number of moon cakes that can be put on the baking tray, prepare the number of moon cakes first to avoid being exposed to the air for a long time after weighing the skin stuffing. Then take a piece of skin, put it in the center of the left hand and flatten it at the thenar of the right hand.

Then put a filling, let the skin cover the filling, while turning, rub the skin up with the index finger of your right hand until it covers more than half of the filling. At this time, the thumb and forefinger of the right hand circle and close with the jaws. There are no rules in the technique, depending on your habits, but the whole process should be fast and you can't turn it in your hands for a long time.

After closing, you can see where the stuffing is exposed, and you can pinch a little skin to repair it. Then it is slightly rounded into an oval shape and put into the mold. Before using the mold, you can coat it with oil and then blot it with paper. This formula has a high oil content and can be directly pressed without dry powder. If you are afraid of sticking, you can dip it in some flour after closing it, then stick it together and shake off the excess powder. You can also pour some dry powder into the mold, shake it and then pour it out, so that there is a thin layer of powder in the mold. ) Then press the mold on the baking tray tin foil, press it down with your left hand and press the handle with your right hand.

After pressing out the shape, release the left hand and shake it left and right to leave the cake blank on the baking tray, and lift the mold.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and put it in the baking tray (if the moon cake is dry powder, spray a little water before entering the oven; If you don't use dry powder, you don't need to spray water), leave it for about 5 minutes, take it out after a little coloring, cool it a little, brush the egg liquid (1 egg yolk+1/3 egg white and mix well), and when brushing the egg liquid, brush it on the edge of the bowl after it touches the egg liquid.

Bake the moon cakes with egg liquid 170 degrees 15 minutes. In addition, I baked a plate of 5 skins (both left and right in the picture are freshly baked). The crust of freshly baked moon cakes is relatively dry and hard, and there should be an oil return period of 1-3 days. Make sure to cool thoroughly before sealing or packing.