The traditional food for Mid-Autumn Festival is mooncakes, which are round and symbolize reunion, reflecting people's good wishes for family reunion. It is said that eating mooncakes at Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Yuan Dynasty, when Zhu Yuanzhang, who led the Han Chinese people to rebel against the tyranny of the Yuan Dynasty, agreed to rise up on the 15th day of the 8th month, and passed on the news by exchanging mooncakes with a note stuck in the mooncake. The custom of eating mooncakes at the Mid-Autumn Festival then spread among the people. The English spelling is: mooncake (月亮蛋糕).
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang finally overthrew the Yuan Dynasty and became the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and although the Qing Dynasty later came to dominate China, people still celebrated the festival to symbolize the overthrow of foreign rule.
It is said that in ancient times in China, emperors had a ritual of sacrificing the sun in the spring and the moon in the fall. In folklore, there is also a custom of worshipping or sacrificing to the moon around every August mid-autumn festival. "The moon is full on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, and the mooncake is fragrant and sweet on the mid-autumn festival," says the famous proverb, which describes the custom of eating mooncakes on the night of the mid-autumn festival in the city and the countryside. The mooncake was first used as an offering to the moon god, and then people gradually took the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and tasted the mooncake as a symbol of family reunion, and slowly the mooncake became a gift for the festival.
The mooncake was first introduced to the Tang Dynasty as an army food. During the reign of Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, General Li Jing was victorious in his campaign against the Xiongnu, and returned home on August 15 in triumph.
The Turpanese merchants offered mooncakes to the Tang emperor. Li Yuan, the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty, took the gorgeous cake box, took out the round cake, and pointed to the bright moon in the sky with a smile, saying: "I should invite the toad with the Hu cake". After saying this, he distributed the cakes among his ministers and ate them together.
Southern Song Wu Zimu's "Dream Sorghum Records" book, there has been the word "mooncake", but on the Mid-Autumn Festival to enjoy the moon, eat mooncake description, is the Ming Dynasty's "West Lake Excursion Zhi will be" only recorded: "August 15 is called the middle of the autumn, the folk to the mooncake to bequeath to each other, to take the reunion of the righteousness! ". By the Qing Dynasty, there are more records about mooncakes, and the production is becoming more and more elaborate.
Moon cake development to today, more varieties, flavors vary from place to place. Among them, Beijing-style, Suzhou-style, Canton-style, Chao-style moon cakes are widely eaten by people in the north and south of China.
Mooncakes symbolize reunion and are a must for the Mid-Autumn Festival. On the night of the festival, people also love to eat some watermelon and other fruits of reunion, praying for a happy, sweet and peaceful life for their families.
Mooncake classification
China's mooncake varieties, according to the origin of: Beijing-style mooncakes, Cantonese mooncakes, Su-style mooncakes, Taiwanese mooncakes, Dian-style mooncakes, Hong Kong-style mooncakes, Chao-style mooncakes, Hui-style mooncakes, osmanthus mooncakes, and even Japanese, etc.; in terms of taste, sweet, savory, salty-sweet, spicy; from the heart, there are five nuts, bean paste, rock candy, black sesame, ham mooncakes, and so on; According to the crust, there are three major categories: batter crust, mixed sugar crust, crispy crust; the relevant classification is briefly as follows:
(1) Cantonese-style moon cakes. Cantonese moon cakes is currently the largest category of moon cakes, which originated in Guangdong and surrounding areas, has become popular throughout the country, characterized by thin skin, large filling, usually skin-filling ratio of 2:8, skin-filling oil content is higher than that of other types of eating taste fluffy, smooth, glossy surface highlights the prominent representatives of the Guangzhou Lotus House and the Guangzhou Restaurants of the white lotus seed paste moon cakes.
(2) Beijing-style moon cakes. Beijing-style moon cakes originated in Beijing and Tianjin and the surrounding areas, there is a certain market in the north, its main feature is the sweetness and skin-filling ratio is moderate, the general skin-filling ratio of 4:6, to the filling of the special flavor-based, crisp and loose texture, the main products are the Beijing Taoxiangcun's self red moon cakes, self white moon cakes, and five kernels of moon cakes and so on.
(3) Soviet-style moon cakes. Soviet-style moon cakes originated in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and neighboring areas, its main feature is the loose crust, filling with five kernels, bean paste, etc., the sweetness is higher than other types of moon cakes, the main products are produced in Hangzhou, Luminous Soviet-style moon cakes, etc..
(4) Dian-style moon cakes. Dian-style moon cakes are mainly originated and popular in Yunnan, Guizhou and the surrounding areas, and now also gradually by consumers in other regions like, its main feature is the filling of Dian-style ham, loose crust, filling salty and sweet to taste, there is a unique Dian-style ham flavor, the main product is the production of Kunming Jixingxiang cloud leg moon cakes.
Other moon cakes. Other help style moon cakes relatively small amount, such as ice moon cakes, fruit and vegetable moon cakes, sea food moon cakes, coconut milk moon cakes, tea moon cakes, etc