Eating moon cakes while enjoying the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival is actually the legacy of lunar sacrifice, which is suggested by "the sun rises at the vernal equinox and the moon falls at the autumnal equinox". Why should we sacrifice to the lunar calendar? Because from this time on, it is "the sun is dying while the yin is growing", and nature begins to eliminate the sun and the yin is growing, so people should conform to nature. In terms of personnel, we should start to converge, start to hide, and start to save our strength to prepare for the coming year.
Yang Guifei and Tang Xuanzong enjoyed the moon one year and ate a round thin cake with raisins, walnuts and preserved fruits in it. Yang Guifei liked it very much and asked what kind of cake it was. A maid-in-waiting replied that this is Hu Bing. Yang Guifei disliked the name of Hu cake, and Tang Xuanzong said that Ai Fei didn't like the name. Look at how the cake looks like the moon in the sky. Let's change it to moon cake in the future. Yang Guifei was very happy. Since then, the name and recipe of moon cakes have spread from the palace and become a favorite of the people to enjoy the moon.
The custom of eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival is also related to Zhu Yuanzhang. According to legend, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, many heroes rose together, and Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to unite with other resistance forces to fight against the Yuan Dynasty. However, the officers and men of the Yuan Dynasty searched closely and suffered from the inability to deliver news. Liu Bowen, the adviser, came up with a plan and ordered Wang Zhaoguang to make cakes, and hid a note with the words "August 15th Uprising" in the cakes. Then send them to the uprising troops in various places separately, and inform them to respond to the uprising on the evening of August 15. In order to commemorate this achievement, the custom of eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival has been handed down. Especially in the north, there is a saying that "Tartars were killed on August 15th".
"Journey to the West Lake" said: "People give each other moon cakes and take the meaning of reunion." Dongpo praised moon cakes with "small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crispness and pulp in them". At first, mooncakes were used as sacrifices to the moon god. Later, people gradually regarded the Mid-Autumn Festival as a symbol of family reunion, and gradually mooncakes became holiday gifts.