San Francisco claims they were invented there at the turn of the 20th Century. Is this enirely correct?
2007-07-01 12:31:37 · 3 answers · asked by Darrell L 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
For many centuries the Chinese have marked special occasions and festival times such as harvest and New Year with the giving and receiving of Moon Cakes these were made from Lotus Nut Paste.
During the 13th and 14th centuries China was occupied by the Mongols. When plans were made in Peking for a popular uprising to oust the invaders, much thought was given how news of the date of the uprising could be circulated without alerting the Mongols.
The story goes that the Mongols had no taste for Lotus Nut Paste and so the Chinese hid the message containing the date in the middle of their Moon Cakes replacing the yolk with secret messages. Patriotic revolutionary, Chu Yuan Chang took on the disguise of a Taoist priest and entered occupied walled cities handing out Moon Cakes. These were the instructions to co-ordinate the uprising which successfully formed the basis of the Ming Dynasty.
Thus the tradition of giving cakes with messages was born and became a popular way of expressing wishes of goodwill or good fortune on an important occasion.
The origins of the Fortune Cookie as we know it today were laid down by the Chinese 49'ers who worked on the building of the great American railways through the Sierra Nevada into California.
Work was very hard and pleasures were few in isolated camps, those hard workers had only biscuits with happy messages inside, to exchange at the Moon festival instead of traditional cakes with happy messages, thus the FORTUNE COOKIE was born. This became something of a cottage industry and as the Chinese settled in San Francisco after the railway and the Gold boom the custom continued. Today it is almost impossible to have a Chinese meal in America and Canada without finishing with a Fortune Cookie.
More and more businesses and even governments are having promotional messages printed on the opposite side to the fortune. The HONG KONG police used them in anti - drugs campaigns and the US followed.
The first automated production of Fortune Cookies took place in America in 1964 before that they were made by hand. In recent years fully automated facilities have been set up in the UK to produce Fortune Cookies that are now gaining increasing popularity in Chinese restaurants and Take-Aways across the U.K. and Europe.
2007-07-01 14:44:08 · answer #1 · answered by peace_by_moonlight 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes. The fortune was put in for American tastes for the exotic. They are not Chinese. Try going to China and finding one...No there!
2007-07-01 19:40:02 · answer #2 · answered by catherine 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well they are almost correct but in ancient China it was customary to have your fortune told and then to eat something sweet................................................... So its and old custom with a new twist thats all...................................
2007-07-02 00:27:03 · answer #3 · answered by kilroymaster 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋