Fortune cookies are something that people of all ages can enjoy. All you have to do is be able to read! Fortune cookies are served after a meal at a Chinese restaurant. However, how did this tradition begin, and did the Chinese even invent fortune cookies? Read on and find out!
Contrary to popular belief, it is thought that the Chinese themselves did not actually invent the fortune cookie. This seems odd, I know, because fortune cookies are only served at Chinese restaurants. It is said that back in 1918, in Los Angeles, David Jung invented the fortune cookie by making cookies with thin strips of paper inside. Jung founded the Hong Kong Noodle Company, and the restaurant was producing more than 3,000 cookies an hour in the 1920s. Jung started off by using passages from the Bible, along with quotes from Benjamin Franklin and Aesop to put on the strips of paper--as the "fortunes". However, by the 1950's Jung decided that people would enjoy more playful messages inside of their cookie. So, he held fortune-writing contests, and the winners were awarded memberships into the San Francisco Society of Fortune Cookie Scribes. (What an honor!) These fortune writing contests resulted in much more "lively" messages on the small strip of paper inside of the cookie. Sayings such as, "Speak only well of people and you need never whisper" and "Help! I am being held prisoner in a Chinese bakery!" were printed on the small strips of paper. Now, as you may notice, these "fortunes" are quite different from opening up a cookie and reading a Bible passage.
Although a man living in America is credited for inventing the fortune cookie, the Chinese were actually quite close to the idea hundreds of years ago. In the fourteenth century, the Chinese made moon cakes, and inside they would hide secret messages giving military orders or classified information. They stuffed the moon cakes with strategies for fending off the Mongols, and so the cakes served as a crucial means of communication. This idea is very similar to today's fortune cookie, except they used cakes and not cookies, and today we openly share our "fortune" with those around us.
There is also another possible ancient form of the fortune cookie that hails from China. People would sit down together and be served twisted cakes that contained pieces of paper that had topics written on them. The "players" would open up the cakes, read the topic, and make up wise sayings that are related to the topic. Although this takes a little bit more thought than today's version of the fortune cookie, it still seems to be the same general idea.
Regardless of what the official origin of the fortune cookie may be, I am glad they were invented because I know how much I enjoy opening up the folded cookie and reading a cute message! Today fortune cookies are extremely popular. Not only can they be found in restaurants, but they are sold at grocery stores as well. Fortune cookies are now mass produced and they are even exported to China and Hong Kong with fortunes written in English. Here are some examples of real fortunes from real fortune cookies:
I hope you greatly enjoyed this little wiki on fortune cookies and hopefully after reading through it, your knowledge of fortune cookies has been greatly expanded! Read through it again if you want, because you know it is that interesting! Well I hope you have a wonderful day!
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