? The first protagonist of Mid-Autumn Festival is moon cakes. There are many legends about the origin of moon cakes, and the more popular view appeared in the Tang Dynasty. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the East Turkic was powerful. When Li Yuan rose from Taiyuan, he surrendered to the Turkic Khan in exchange for the relative stability in the north. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the Turks supported the separatist forces such as Xue Ju and Liu Wuzhou, and fought against the Tang Dynasty. On the other hand, he relied on the army to strengthen Ma Zhuang, and constantly invaded dispatch troops south. In order to pacify the foreign invasion in the north, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan appointed Li Jing, a famous general at that time, as the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition (marching general) to fight back against the Turks and finally win.

? The day of Li Jing's triumph happened to be August 15, and it happened that Turpan people presented cakes to Li Yuan that night. Li Yuan was sharing the good news of Li Jing's victory with his ministers at that time. He was very happy to see the round cake. He smiled at the sky and blurted out, "You should invite toads to the Hu cake." The general meaning of this sentence is that the god of the moon should be invited to come down to earth to share this delicious Hu cake with everyone. Li Yuan then distributed Hu cakes to the ministers, who tasted them together and enjoyed the moon. It is said that the custom of eating moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th came from this and spread from the palace to the people.

? In fact, this legend cannot be used as the basis for the origin of moon cakes. In ancient times, the ancients in China worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars and other celestial bodies, so there was a custom of "worshipping the sun in spring, Yue Bai in autumn, and astrology at night". When they were in Yue Bai, they always offered a small round cake, which was the embryonic form of moon cakes.

The Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, a well-known love legend, is the most poignant among all Mid-Autumn legends. How did the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon get in touch with the Mid-Autumn Festival? There are many stories here.

? Chang 'e, formerly known as Heng E, is the wife of the mythical figure Hou Yi. In the Western Han Dynasty, it was renamed "Chang 'e" to avoid the taboo of Emperor Liu Heng. There are two versions of the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, both of which can be found in Huai Nan Zi. In one version, Chang 'e stole the elixir and ran to the moon: "You invited the elixir to the Queen Mother of the West, but before taking it, Heng E stole it, and gained immortality, and ran into the moon as the essence of the moon." Hou Yi got the elixir of life from the Queen Mother of the West. After stealing it from her husband, the greedy Chang 'e ran to the moon and became the goddess of the moon.

? Another version is that Chang 'e was forced to take the elixir: Feng Meng, who studied archery with Hou Yi, heard that Hou Yi had got the elixir of life, so he went to steal it. Feng Meng failed to succeed, and evil came from bravery, trying to harm Chang 'e. In desperation, Chang 'e swallowed the elixir herself and flew to the sky.

? In addition to these two versions, I have analyzed the notes of the ancients and put forward another version of the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon: She ran to the moon because her husband Hou Yi had an extramarital affair. This view was later taken by many people and became their own research experience. Cut the gossip. After the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, she became a "moon essence", the goddess of the moon.

? When he became a god, people began to worship the goddess Chang 'e, but Yue Bai is a woman's business, that is, the so-called "men don't Yue Bai, women don't sacrifice stoves". Married women, in particular, must worship the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, because the moon belongs to the Yin, giving birth to children, and in the past, it was a blessing to have many children. Naturally, Yue Bai hoped to get pregnant more. When I was in Yue Bai, I was given a round cake with stuffing, which gradually evolved into a "moon cake". In addition to moon cakes, there will be fresh melons and fruits, especially melons with seeds. In addition to Yue Bai, women used to "touch the autumn" and "send melons" during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and sending melons is sending children, which is an expression of the wishes of beggars in China in the past.