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. In the early Tang Dynasty, the East Turkistan was powerful. Tang gaozu rose from Taiyuan and surrendered to Turk Khan, in exchange for 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 to fight against the Tang Dynasty.

On the other hand, he relied on the army to strengthen Mazhuang and constantly invaded and transferred troops south. In order to pacify the invasion of foreign enemies in the north, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan appointed Li Jing, a famous soldier at that time, as commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition (marching general) to counter the Turks and finally win.

The day of Li Jing's triumph happened to be August 15, and that night Turpan people just presented cakes to Li Yuan. At that time, Li Yuan was sharing the good news of Li Jing's victory with ministers. He was very happy to see the round cake. He smiled at the sky and blurted out, "You should invite toads to eat Hu cakes." The general meaning of this sentence is, please come down to earth and share this delicious Hu cake with everyone.

Tang gaozu then distributed Hu cakes to ministers, who tasted them together and enjoyed the moon together. It is said that the custom of eating moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15 came from this and spread from the court to the people.

In fact, this legend cannot be used as the basis for the origin of moon cakes. Ancient ancestors in China worshipped celestial bodies such as the sun, moon and stars, so there was a custom of "worshipping the sun in spring, the moon in autumn and the stars at night". When they are in Yue Bai, they always provide a small round cake, which is the embryonic form of moon cakes.

Extended data:

Customs of Mid-Autumn Festival:

1, enjoy the moon

China has the custom of enjoying the moon since ancient times. It is recorded in the Book of Rites that "the moon sets at dusk in autumn", that is, to worship the moon god. In the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night, activities to welcome the cold and offer sacrifices to the moon were held. Put a big incense table with seasonal fruits such as moon cakes, watermelons, apples, plums and grapes, among which moon cakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable.

Step 2 eat moon cakes

As the saying goes, "August 15th is the full moon, and Mid-Autumn moon cakes are sweet and fragrant". Moon cakes were originally used to worship the moon god. The word "moon cake" first appeared in Liang Lumeng written by Wu in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, it was just a cake-shaped food like Ling Hua cake. Later, people gradually combined the Mid-Autumn Festival with tasting moon cakes, which symbolized family reunion.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Mid-Autumn Festival