According to legend, during the Yuan Dynasty, the broad masses of people in the Central Plains refused to be subjected to the cruel rule of the Mongols and rebelled against the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to unite the resistance forces, but the officers and men of the Yuan Dynasty searched closely and suffered from the inability to pass on the news. So Liu Bowen came up with a plan, ordered Wang Zhaoguang to make cakes, and hid the 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. Therefore, the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown in one fell swoop. In order to commemorate this achievement, the custom of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival was handed down. Especially in the northeast, there is a saying that "Da Zi was killed on August 15th".
No matter what generation the moon cake originated from, it is the wish of people all over the world to show the reunion of people with the full moon, to show the eternal life of people with the full moon cake, to pin their thoughts on their hometown and their loved ones, and to pray for a bumper harvest and happiness.
Some people think that eating and sending moon cakes has been related to the Mid-Autumn Festival since ancient times. In fact, this is not the case. In the early Tang dynasty, it turned out that only the first day of the eighth lunar month was a festival, but there was no fifteenth day. According to legend, later, Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty visited the Moon Palace on the night of August 15th, so that the people took August 15th as the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the middle Tang dynasty, people began to go upstairs to watch the moon on the night of August 15, when there were no moon cakes. Speaking of moon cakes, they first appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, moon cakes at that time had nothing to do with the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, moon cakes were also very different from modern moon cakes, and only appeared in the food market as steamed food.
Moon cakes were really associated with Mid-Autumn Festival in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, there was a kind of mooncake filled with fruit in Beijing, and people made mooncakes themselves on the Mid-Autumn Festival to eat and give them to friends and relatives to express reunion and congratulations. At that time, the size and shape of moon cakes were very irregular and very different, and their names were quite special.
For example, in Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province, on the Mid-Autumn Festival, local people have the custom of sitting around and sharing reunion moon cakes. There are many interesting moon cakes made by them, such as crescent moon cakes for men, gourd moon cakes for women only, and moon cakes such as "the Monkey King" and "male prostitute" specially prepared for teenagers, etc. There are many names, and so on. The technology of making moon cakes has reached a very high level in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, decorative patterns such as "toad and rabbit in the moon" appeared on the cake surface of some moon cakes. Its exquisite design, beautiful composition and delicate pattern make people enjoy art, which not only fully reflects the ingenuity of mooncake makers, but also reflects the splendid culture of our great Chinese nation.
August 15th of the lunar calendar is a day for people to get together or miss their relatives and friends far away. In the Mid-Autumn Festival, Xiamen people enjoy the moon and eat Mid-Autumn moon cakes, and there is also a folk activity of "playing the champion of cake fairs" handed down from Zheng Zheng's successful expulsion of Holland and recovery of Taiwan Province, which is quite interesting. There are 63 cakes for Mid-Autumn Festival, with different sizes. * * * is divided into 6 kinds, which respectively represent the champion, second place, flower exploration, Jinshi, juren and scholar in ancient imperial examinations. Everyone takes turns to throw six dice into the bowl, and get the cake according to the number of dice put into the bowl, so as to win the "No.1 scholar" in the end. For more than 300 years, this fun-filled activity has been circulating among Xiamen people, and cake shops and factories in Xiamen will produce a large number of such cakes before and after the Mid-Autumn Festival.
It is a unique custom for Xiamen people to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival to get together and play the cake Expo champion. It is said that more than 300 years ago, when Zheng Chenggong fought against the Qing Dynasty in Xiamen, the Ministry of Zheng, Hongxu, in order to relieve the soldiers' worries, encourage and boost their morale, and help expel the Dutch colonists to recover Taiwan Province, and after some deliberation, with the staff of the rear government hall stationed at No.33 ~ No.44 of Jinhong Headquarters, skillfully designed the Mid-Autumn Festival cake, so that all the soldiers could fight happily on the cool Mid-Autumn Festival night.