By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Kan Chee Chun is ready for the Moon Festival,
with a selection of sweet moon cakes
from Shung Chong Yuein.

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Moon Festival cakes
weighted with legend

By Nadine Kam
Star-Bulletin

"When drinking water remember the source."

That is the theme for the poems and writings of Kan Chee Chun, and words to remember when biting into moon cakes on Tuesday, in celebration of the Moon Festival, when the moon is said to be at its fullest.

These cakes filled with bean or lotus seed pastes, assorted fruits and nuts, and one or two duck egg yolks symbolizing the full moon, are most closely associated with the festival. But old-timers remember when snails, pomelo, tangerines and horned nuts called lung-kok were also part of the celebration menu.

Chun, 83, a former physical education director for Nuuanu YMCA and insurance salesman with an interest in Chinese history and literature, recalls, "The best part was eating snails we called tin-ler. We would take out the meat with toothpicks or safety pins."

As for the moon cakes, he can't name his favorite. "Double egg, mixed nut, coconut, black sugar, lotus -- they're all about equal. So long as there's something to eat I don't discriminate."

Shung Chong Yuein, Ltd. at 1027 Maunakea St. is Chun's bakery of choice for its vast selection of palm-sized cakes. They range in price from $2.65 to $4.05 each.

Traditionally, the Moon Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month. Although it is still a big celebration in China, locally, it is observed quietly among families.

There are three tales that account for the origins of the festival and the moon cake. One legend involves Hou-I, a famous archer, and his wife Chang-O.

Hou-I had been given the elixir of immortality, and Chang-O tasted it out of curiosity. Hou-I became angry and Chang-O fled to the sky, where she remains as goddess of the moon. Once a year only, at the time of the Moon Festival, the couple is allowed to reunite.

Another story dates to the Ching dynasty, when a Chinese army ate snails, nuts, fruit and anything they could find under the light of the moon to maintain their health and vigor for fighting their enemies.

The tale of messages in moon cakes dates to 1368, when a group of revolutionaries plotted an uprising. They kept in touch with each other through messages baked inside the cakes, which could be exchanged in public.

Over the years, Chun, has written several personal poems commemorating these Moon Festival legends and other Chinese traditions.

An excerpt from one of his poems follows:

Moon Festival

(By Kan Chee Chun)

It's Moon Festival time
In eighth moon, fifteenth day.
Moon will be in its prime;
Harvest crops put away.

The Chinese bakeries
Are like the bees busy.
Moon cakes varieties
Make customers happy.

Moon cake commemorates
When nation's fate at stake,
To dethrone dynasty
In ancient history.

For rebellion's sake,
Secret notes in moon cake.
Censorship to evade
Success for war plans made.

Successful uprising
Reason celebrating.
Moon cakes in memory
Of deeds that set them free.

Moon cake has its meanings --
For the full moon, round shape;
For night, black beans filling;
Duck yolk center, moonscape.

Chinese tin ler compare;
Frenchman's escargot eat.
Food item fashion fare;
Both snails a gourmet treat.

Taro from where snails spawn;
Fresh fruits for one to eat.
The lung kok's two black horns
A treat each year repeat.