Mooncakes were not called mooncakes at first, but hu cakes, which were made of walnut and sesame seeds; when Emperor Tang Taizong was eating hu cakes, he felt that the name hu cakes was not good, and that day happened to be the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th of August, so he looked up at the moon and said that since the moon was so full, he would call this kind of hu cakes as mooncakes.

Mooncakes were initially sacrificed to the moon, and then people gradually combined the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival with the tasting of mooncakes, gifting mooncakes and eating mooncakes to symbolize the two reunions of the people and the moon.