Alternative names for mooncakes include: harvest cake, moon ball, reunion cake, and small cake. Moon cake is essentially a kind of tribute used by the ancient ancestors to worship the moon, and its name first originated in the Tang Dynasty period. The custom of eating mooncakes at the Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history in China. There are different stories about the origin of eating mooncakes at the Mid-Autumn Festival. The common story is that during the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Li Shimin, in order to conquer the Turkic peoples in the north and pacify their repeated invasions, ordered his general Li Jing to personally lead his troops to battle on the border, which resulted in a number of miraculous achievements.

On August 15, Li Jing returned to the capital in triumph. In order to celebrate the victory, the city of Chang'an and the city of music and cannons were fired, and the people and the army partied all night long. At that time, there was a Tubo man who came to Chang'an to do business, and specially offered round cakes to the emperor to celebrate the victory. Emperor Li Shimin was overjoyed, took the gorgeous cake box, took out the colorful cakes, pointing to the bright moon hanging in the sky and said: "I should invite the toad with the Hu cake." Afterwards, the cake was distributed to the civil and military officials. Since then, the custom of eating mooncakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival has been passed down.

Introduction to Mooncakes

Mooncakes are one of the traditional Han Chinese delicacies, which were originally used as offerings to worship the moon god. Moon worship is a very ancient custom in China, which is actually a kind of worship activity of the ancient people to the "moon god".

To this day, eating mooncakes and enjoying the moon at Mid-Autumn Festival is a necessary custom for Mid-Autumn Festival in all parts of China. Mooncakes symbolize reunion, and people treat them as festive food, offer them to the moon, and give them to friends and relatives.