Jeremy,this might be too bold an assertion, "a festive food that nobody actually enjoys eating". I, for one, really enjoy eating the moon cake.

"a festive food that nobody actually enjoys eating" is not just too bold an assertion, it is just plain wrong! Chinese people all over the world actually like eating it. In fact, that is why it is a popular gift. Moreover, making moon cakes is at least 10 times more labor-intensive than make fruitcakes, so it is quite an insult to even mention them in the same breath.

Same here, I for one enjoy eating one or two, but no more. But really it depend on which kind of mooncakes, certain kinds of mooncake I will throw up just by looking at it, while others are yummy!

But you have to admit, mooncake is pretty bad.

I cant think of anyone in my circle of friends who actually eat them every year, sure they buy them and give them to friends, work mates, relatives etc, but nobody seems to eat them.

Repackaging mooncakes for next year's festival?? A good thing then that I bought locally made mooncakes rather than buying the ones made overseas!

Actually, I do not like to eat.
But every year we need many mooncakes, maybe it is just a symbol which means now it is Mid-Autumn Festival or I remember you.

Everybody is jumping on the taste of moon cakes. Exactly what I wanted to comment after reading this, haha. Certainly not all moon cakes are tasty but some flavors are just damn good.

Every year starting in mid-August, there are lines every day near my Shanghai house to get mooncakes from a locally well-known restaurant that makes them only in autumn. They are cheap (10 yuan for a box of six) and delicious, and it's not possible people are buying them as gifts. It's true, they're not just for giving to others!

Today's Shanghai Morning Post had a great article about "Mooncakes disrupt white-collar workers' lunches" because many of the bakeries in downtown Shanghai have converted to all-mooncake mode.

Eating mooncakes is self-flagellation.

Mooncakes vs Christmas cakes? I'd say it was a draw.

Back when my mother still used to make Christmas cake, it was absolutely, incredibly and unbelievably delicious. In answer to Neng, bad fruit cake may be less labor intensive than mooncakes, but the seriously good stuff is not. The only problem with my mother's Christmas cake was that it was so good I just couldn't stop eating it, but consuming large quantities of something so rich produced a gas so vile it should be banned by a UN convention.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, there a very few fruitcakes in the world that are not bad, and the same is true of mooncakes. The mere sight of either of them fills me with fear. There is just a faint possibility that this particular mooncake or Christmas cake might be nice, but the odds are very much against it. That said, I have enjoyed mooncakes on two occasions. Both batches came from Shanghai.

It's not about whether the mooncake is tasty or not. The tone of this post is sort of weird. Sarcastic, at least.

ignoring the other points that this post is supposed to be making, I too am going to focus on the point that some mooncakes are actually quite yummy (ie: lotus seed) and the high-end ice cream ones and the starbucks varieties (all mooncakes of the people, of course) are absolutely delicious... though perhaps not worth the money you pay for them ;)

月饼有做的好吃的,有做的不好吃的.客观地说,我不太喜欢吃月饼.我上学时候用学校发的月饼来订板凳上的钉子.我很喜欢这个标题,该讽刺就要讽刺,做人不能太假.也许给那些维和人员的都是上等月饼吧.

I doubt they'll have much luck sending the HaagenDaz mooncakes, though they are the most delicious.
As far as repackaging, for most of us, that's unnecessary -- just stick them in the gift closet and wait for next year to recirculate them.