Before the Song Dynasty, there was no such term as "moon cake" in many places. In the past, "moon cakes" were sacrifices to the royal family. "Zhou Rites" once said: "The emperor sees the bright moon on the spring day and the autumn night." When the emperor worshiped the moon, the moon cakes on the platform were the earliest "moon cakes". Since the Song Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival, the emperor would hold a grand dinner in the palace, and officials above the sixth level in the capital and capital region would attend. After worshiping the moon god, the emperor and his officials admired the moon and sang poems together. At that time, the special snack at the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet was called "Gong Cake", commonly known as "Small Cake" or "Moon Group".

The great scholar Su Dongpo once wrote: "Small cakes are like chewing the moon, some are crispy and some are crispy. Taste its taste, and the towel will be stained with lovesickness." It can be seen from this that even the so-called "gourmet" Sushi also believes that it is most appropriate to eat "small cakes" during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Small cakes made of butter and sugar are most suitable for the bright moon in the sky. The word "mooncake" first appeared in "Menglianlu" by Wu Zimu, a scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty. Wu Zimu was from Qiantang. He wrote "Menglianglu" to commemorate Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the prosperous city of Qiantang. The book records that in the Southern Song Dynasty, the mooncakes made by wealthy families were in the shape of water chestnuts and were named Hongling cakes. Similar mooncakes include hibiscus cake, chrysanthemum cake and plum blossom cake. This kind of mooncake can also be eaten as a snack at ordinary times, not only during the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, these are scenes of the court and dignitaries. The National Moon Cake Festival will have to wait until the Ming Dynasty.

The custom of appreciating the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Literati in the Wei and Jin Dynasties often invited their companions to gather together to express their thoughts on the occasion of the full moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, moon appreciation during the Mid-Autumn Festival was very popular and gradually extended to the people.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Song Dynasty, in addition to admiring the moon, there was also the custom of admiring lanterns. Unlike the large-scale Lantern Festival, people mainly celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with water lanterns. "Wulin Gaiden" once said: "This night, Zhejiang put hundreds of thousands of 'little red' lambskin water lanterns" and received the blessing of the River God. The river lanterns were "full of water and floating, rotten like stars",

This beautiful scenery is breathtaking. In the Forbidden City, there are even more prosperous scenes: "During the ban, night is night, and there are rows of laurel trees to admire the moon, such as Yiyuegui Pavilion, Qiuhui Hall, Bicen, etc. , are all temporary orders, in the dead of night, the world is full of joy. "Jade is like suede, candied fruit, incense shop, etc., all selling goods, bragging, fighting, this is called resting eyes. The lights are bright, but the night has passed." The layout of the palace is like a fairyland.