The flavors of Mid-Autumn mooncakes include sweet, salty, salty-sweet, and spicy. In terms of fillings, there are osmanthus mooncakes, prune mooncakes, five kernels, bean paste, rose, lotus paste, rock sugar, ginkgo, meat floss, black sesame, ham mooncakes, egg yolk mooncakes, etc.

Moon cakes were originally used as offerings to worship the moon god. Sacrifice to the moon is a very ancient custom in our country. It is actually an activity of worship of the "Moon God" by the ancients. Since its development, the Mid-Autumn Festival, eating moon cakes and admiring the moon have become essential customs for celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival in various places in northern and southern China.

Mooncakes are integrated with the dietary customs of various places, and Cantonese-style, Jin-style, Beijing-style, Soviet-style, Chaozhou-style, Yunnan-style and other mooncakes have been developed, which are loved by people from all over the north and south of China.

Moon cakes were also called "small cakes" and "moon balls" in ancient times. Su Dongpo, the great poet of the Song Dynasty, praised moon cakes in a poem, "Small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crispness and sweetness in them." From this, we can know the popularity of moon cakes in the Song Dynasty. The mooncakes are already filled with ghee and sugar.

Extended information

The origin of moon cakes

The Mid-Autumn Festival originated in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, took shape in the Tang Dynasty, and was established in the Song Dynasty. People in the Shang and Zhou dynasties inherited the custom of worshiping the moon. Later, moon appreciation gradually evolved into a folk entertainment activity. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the 15th day of the eighth lunar month was finally officially designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival.

It was also during the Northern Song Dynasty that records began to appear that "small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crispy and glutinous rice in them" (Su Dongpo's "Liu Farewell Lian Shou") similar to moon cakes.

There is also a legend that during the reign of Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, General Li Jing conquered the Turks and won the war by using moon cakes to conceal the message. Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan took the round cake, pointed at the bright moon in the sky with a smile and said: "You should invite toads with Hu cakes", and moon cakes were born.