In ancient times, why were mooncakes also known as moon balls?

In the Northern Song Dynasty, people called mooncakes moon dough also known as small cakes. It was a symbol of reunion and good fortune for the whole family. Reflecting people's good wishes for family reunion, it is also a deep remembrance of close friends and relatives.

Moon ball is because in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Royal Mid-Autumn Festival like to eat Palace cake, folklore called "small cakes", "moon ball". Su Dongpo once wrote: "small cakes such as chewing the moon, there are crispy and Yi". Wu Zimu of the Southern Song Dynasty, "Dream sorghum record" book, there has been the word moon cake, but for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, the whole family ate moon cake description, is in the Ming Dynasty, "West Lake Excursion Zhi will be" only recorded: "August 15 is called the middle of the autumn, the folk to the moon cake to leave each other, take the reunion of the meaning of". To the Qing Dynasty, about the moon cake on the record is more and more up, and about the moon cake production project is also more and more fine.

In our country on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, people have to eat mooncakes to express "reunion". Mooncakes, also known as hu cake, palace cake, moon ball, harvest cake, reunion cake, etc., moon cake is in the ancient Mid-Autumn Festival to worship the moon god offerings. Legend has it that in ancient times in China there was a custom for emperors to take mooncakes to worship the moon god on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In folklore, there is also a custom of worshipping or sacrificing to the moon on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, August 15. "The moon is full on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, and the mooncakes are fragrant and sweet", a famous proverb that describes the custom of eating mooncakes on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival in both urban and rural areas. Mooncakes were initially used as offerings to the moon god, and then people gradually took the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and tasted mooncakes to the moon group as a beautiful symbol of family reunion.

In ancient times, mooncake was just an alias for mooncake, which contains the wish of the folk for family reunion during the Mid-Autumn Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival Night, as well as the wish of the travelers who are far away from their hometowns and their loved ones to miss their hometowns as well as the deep feelings and the eagerness to expect to be reunited as soon as possible.