The Mid-Autumn Festival began in the early years of the Tang Dynasty and prevailed in the Song Dynasty. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it had become one of the major festivals in China with the same name as New Year's Day. Influenced by the

localization of Chinese, Mid-Autumn Festival is also a traditional festival for overseas Chinese in some countries in East and Southeast Asia, especially local Chinese. Mid-Autumn Festival

has been listed as a national legal holiday since 2118. On May 21th, 2116, the State Council was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage.

Mid-Autumn Festival has had the custom of offering sacrifices to the moon, enjoying the moon, eating moon cakes, enjoying osmanthus and drinking osmanthus wine since ancient times, which has been passed down to this day and lasted for a long time.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a colorful and precious cultural heritage, with the full moon as a sign of people's reunion, for the purpose of missing their hometown and their loved ones, and praying for a bumper harvest and happiness.

Dietary customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. Su Dongpo, a great poet in the Song Dynasty, wrote a poem "Little cakes are like chewing the moon, and there are crisps and fillings in them", from which we can see that the moon cakes in the Song Dynasty have been filled with ghee and sugar. In the Yuan Dynasty, it is said that people used the opportunity of giving mooncakes to include a note in the mooncake

, agreeing on the night of August 15th, and taking actions at the same time to kill and drive away Mongolian "Tartars". In the Ming dynasty, the custom of eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival became more

common. Ming and Shen Bang's Miscellaneous Notes of Wan Department contained: "The furniture of ordinary people is a kind of moon-made bread, which varies in size and is called moon cake."

Zhi in Deliberation says: "In August, begonia and Hosta flowers are enjoyed in the palace. From the first day of junior high school, there are mooncake sellers, and on the 15th, every family offers mooncakes and melons. If there are any moon cakes left, they should be collected in a dry and cool place and used separately at the end of the year, which is called reunion cake. " After Yuan and Ming dynasties, the custom of eating moon cakes and giving moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival became increasingly popular, and moon cakes had the symbolic meaning of "reunion". From Qing Dynasty to modern times, there are new exhibitions on the quality and variety of moon cakes. The differences in raw materials, preparation methods and shapes make moon cakes more colorful, forming Beijing-style, Soviet-style, Guangdong-style and other distinctive products

. Moon cakes are not only unique holiday foods, but also exquisite cakes that are always available in the four seasons, which are very popular among people.

The word moon cake was first seen in Wu Zimu's Dream of Liang Lu in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, the moon cake was rhombic, and it existed

at the same time as chrysanthemum cake and plum cake, and it was "available at all times, whenever you want, you don't miss your customers". It can be seen that the moon cakes at this time are not only eaten in the Mid-Autumn Festival. As for the origin of the term

moon cake, there is no way to verify it. However, Su Dongpo, a famous scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty, left a poem "Little cakes are like chewing the moon, with crispness and satiety in them". Perhaps < P > this is the origin of the name of moon cakes and the basis for their practice.

It is said that eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the broad masses of people in the Central Plains could not bear the cruel rule of the ruling class in the Yuan Dynasty and revolted against the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang joined forces with various resistance forces to prepare for the uprising. However, the officers and men of the imperial court searched very closely and it was very difficult to pass on the news. Strategist Liu Bowen

came up with a plan, ordered his subordinates to hide the note containing the "August 15th uprising" in the cake, and then sent people to the uprising troops in various places separately, informing them to respond to the uprising on the night of August 15th. On the day of the uprising, all the rebels responded together, and the insurgents were like stars.