The Origin of Mid-Autumn Mooncakes

The story of the origin of the mooncake is as follows:

Legend has it that during the reign of Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, the great general Li Jing was victorious in his conquest of the Xiong Nu (Huns), and returned triumphantly on the 15th day of the 8th month. At that time, a businessman from Turpan offered cakes to the Tang emperor to wish him well. Li Yuan, the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty, took the gorgeous cake box, took out the cake, pointed to the bright moon in the sky with a smile and said, "I should invite the toad with the Hu cake", and then gave the cake to the ministers to eat together.

Mooncakes

Eating mooncakes to show that "reunion", mooncakes, also known as Hu cake, Palace cake, moon cake, harvest cake, reunion cake, etc., is the ancient Mid-Autumn Festival offerings to worship the moon god. According to legend, in ancient China, the emperor had the ritual of sacrificing the sun in spring and the moon in fall. In folklore, every August Mid-Autumn Festival, there are also around the custom of worshiping or sacrificing the moon.

"The moon is full on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, and the mooncakes are fragrant and sweet on the mid-autumn festival," says the famous proverb, which describes the custom of eating mooncakes on the night of the mid-autumn festival in the city and the countryside. Mooncakes were initially used to offer sacrifices to the moon god, and then people gradually put the Mid-Autumn Festival to enjoy the moon and taste the mooncake, as a symbol of family reunion, and slowly, the mooncake has become a necessary gift for the festival.