What is the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month? Why eat moon cakes?

Moon cakes symbolize reunion and are essential food for the Mid-Autumn Festival. The custom of eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival is said to have been handed down from the end of Yuan Dynasty.

According to legend, during the Yuan Dynasty, the broad masses of people in the Central Plains rebelled against the cruel rule of the Mongols. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to unite the resistance forces, and the officers and men of the Yuan Dynasty searched closely, but the news could not be transmitted. So Liu Bowen came up with a plan, ordered Wang Zhaoguang to make a cake, and hid a note with the words "August 15th Uprising" in the cake. Then they were sent to the uprising troops in various places, informing them to respond to the uprising on the evening of August 15. Therefore, the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown in one fell swoop. To commemorate this achievement, the custom of eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival has been handed down. Especially in the northeast, there is a saying that "the eldest son was killed on August 15th".

No matter which generation the moon cake originated from, it is the wish of people all over the world. The full moon is used to show the reunion of people, and the full moon is used to show people's eternal life, pinning their thoughts on their hometown and relatives and praying for a bumper harvest and happiness.

Some people think that since ancient times, eating and sending moon cakes are related to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Actually, it's not. In the early Tang Dynasty, it turned out that only the first day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar was a festival, and there was no fifteenth day. According to legend, Ming Taizu later visited the Moon Palace on the night of August 15th in the Tang Dynasty, so people took August 15th as the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the middle Tang Dynasty, people began to go upstairs to enjoy the moon on the evening of August 15th, when there were no moon cakes. Speaking of moon cakes, it 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.

In the Ming Dynasty, moon cakes were indeed associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, there was a kind of moon cakes filled with fruits in Beijing. People made their own moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival and gave them to friends and relatives to express their reunion and congratulations. At that time, moon cakes were irregular in size and shape, with great differences and special names.

For example, in Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, local people have the custom of sitting around and sharing reunion moon cakes. They made many interesting moon cakes, such as crescent moon cakes for men, gourd moon cakes for women, and moon cakes such as "the Monkey King" and "Male Prostitute" specially prepared for teenagers. Many names, and so on. The technology of making moon cakes in Ming Dynasty has reached a high level. 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 exquisite patterns 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.

The fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month is a day for people to get together or miss their distant relatives and friends. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, Xiamen people enjoy the moon and eat moon cakes. There is also a folk activity that Zheng Zheng successfully expelled the Netherlands and recovered the "cake-beating champion" handed down from Taiwan Province Province, which is quite interesting. There are 63 cakes of different sizes in Mid-Autumn Festival. * * * is divided into six kinds, representing the champion, second place, flower detective, scholar, juren and scholar in ancient imperial examinations. Everyone throws six dice into the bowl in turn, and gets the cake according to the number of dice put into the bowl, and finally wins the "No.1 scholar". For more than 300 years, this fun-filled activity has been circulating among Xiamen people, and cake shops and factories in Xiamen will produce this kind of cake in large quantities around the Mid-Autumn Festival.

It is a unique custom for Xiamen people to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival to get together and win the cake Expo. According to legend, when fighting in Xiamen more than 300 years ago, in order to relieve soldiers' worries, encourage and boost morale, and help to expel Dutch colonists and recover Taiwan Province Province, after some discussions, Zheng Department and the staff of the Houzheng Hall stationed at No.33-44 Jinhong Headquarters skillfully designed the Mid-Autumn Festival pie, so that all soldiers could fight happily on the cool Mid-Autumn Festival night.

Cake is counted as "meeting", and generally four or five people are suitable for a "meeting". "Hui" cake imitates the imperial examination system, and consists of one Zhuang Yuan cake (the largest), two opposite cakes (the second place), four three red cakes (exploring flowers), eight four-entry cakes (Jinshi), 16 two-lift cakes (lifting people) and 32 one-show cakes. This is the symbol of the ancient four-level imperial examination. Ancient government-level examinations and young students were called scholars; After obtaining the township examination (provincial level), the successful candidate is called a juror; The meeting in the capital does not call Gong Sheng; The court presided over by the emperor himself is called Jinshi, which is divided into three parts: first, the top three, namely the champion, the second place, and the flower exploration, commonly known as the third Ding Jia or the third age; There are more places for dimethyl and more places for top three. Ancient emperors chose the top scholar, considering not only talent and appearance, but also surnames and names. For example, in the 22nd year of Yongle (1424), Sun Zi, the scholar, was the top scholar. Ming Chengzu thought that the combination of harmony was a "violent" word and unlucky. Fall to the third place, and the third place Xing Kuanyi was changed to the champion. This shows that the top scholar is not necessarily a generation of "talented people who look like Pan An", and the third one is a person with real talent and practical learning, so the "three reds" quality of Xiamen cakes is particularly good, which is what it means.

A set of ***63 cakes is based on "three to nine", and three and nine are auspicious numbers for our people.

"Pancake", which originated in Xiamen, has been popular in Taiwan Province Province for more than 300 years with Zheng's successful recovery of Taiwan Province Province.

Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, Jiangnan is also called August Festival. The origin and prosperity of August Festival is related to Nanjing.

As the season of the New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival came into being late, but enjoying the moon has a long history. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Nanjing's "Cow and Bamboo Playing on the Moon" was the most influential story so far, and even evolved into the Mid-Autumn Festival that the broad masses of the people loved for thousands of years.

Niuzhu (now Caishiji) belonged to Moling, Danyang County (now Nanjing) in Han Dynasty. "The History of Counties and Counties in Continued Han Dynasty" says that there is "Nanniuzhu" in Moling County. As early as 1600 years ago, the Eastern Jin Dynasty established its capital in Nanjing (then called Jianye), and Xie Shang, who was guarding Niuzhu, went boating on the Niuzhu River on a moonlit night. I heard that he satirized his poem "Ode to History" on the charter, which greatly appreciated him and invited him to cross the boat. This man is Justin. It hit it off and recited the poem until dawn. At that time, Xie Shang was a general in Zhenxi, while Justin was just a poor scholar who made a living by renting. Because of their respect for talents, they broke the status barrier. Justin was praised by Xie Shang and became famous from then on. Xie Shang plays the moon, Yuan Hong chants history before, while scholars chase the moon after, so boatmen and moonwalkers emerge one after another. When Li Bai, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, came to Jinling to learn about it, he wrote a poem saying, "I heard about the five chapters of swimming in Niuzhu. Why thank Yuan Jialang today?" Emotionally, go to the Sun Kitchen Restaurant in the west of the city to "play with the moon". In the Tang Dynasty, Ouyang Zhan's Preface to Poems on the Moon also said: "Playing Gu Yue, Xie Fu Bao's family, looking at a castle in the distance, and in a bright building, all play the moon." Ming Chengzu visited the Moon Palace at night in the Tang Dynasty, and these are the stories that have been handed down to this day.

On August 15th, when it was Sanqiu, it was called Mid-Autumn Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival, the temperature is cool, the sky is crisp and the moon is in the middle of the sky. In order to enjoy the moon in the best season, people love to enjoy the moon at this time, which has gradually evolved into a festival since the Tang Dynasty. This is the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival.

In the Song Dynasty, people ate melons, fruits and round cakes on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, which was the beginning of moon cakes. Su Dongpo has a poem "Cookies are like chewing the moon". On the Mid-Autumn Festival night in the Southern Song Dynasty, Jiankang (now Nanjing) and Lin 'an (now Hangzhou) competed to put water lanterns, and candles shook the moonlight, which was particularly spectacular (later Nanjing moved the water lantern to July 15th, which was called "Central Plains Water Lantern").

In the first year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (AD 1368), Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor in Yingtianfu (now Nanjing). On the second day of August, Xu Da captured the Yuan Dynasty. When the news came, Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed. He quickly sent a command to let all the soldiers have fun with the people in the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, and gave the "moon cakes" secretly sent at the time of the war as seasonal cakes to ministers. Since then, the production of "moon cakes" has become more and more elaborate, and there are more and more varieties, such as dishes, which have become good gifts. On this night in Nanjing, people painted the Moon Palace, displayed fresh fruits and moon cakes, lit incense, told stories about "the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon", "WU GANG chopped osmanthus" and "Jade Rabbit mashed medicine", and competed to put on water lanterns. , very lively. Since then, the Mid-Autumn Night has been very lively in both the south and the north. Northerners eat moon cakes and fruits on this day and buy male prostitutes for their children to play with. "Male prostitutes" can be divided into paper paintings, cloth clothes, clay sculptures, rabbit heads and colorful clothes. It is very unique to sit or stand, to beat a pestle, or to ride a beast to raise the flag.

Southerners like to eat moon cakes, fresh lotus roots, cooked water chestnuts, persimmons, pomegranates and sugar stalks in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Nanjing people are guests of jathyapple, and they must eat the famous Jinling dish osmanthus duck. "Sweet-scented osmanthus duck" should be listed in Gui Xiang. It is fat but not greasy and delicious. After drinking, you must eat a small piece of sugar taro and pour cinnamon pulp on it. Beauty speaks for itself. "Guijiang" was named after Qu Yuan's "Helping the North to close its doors and drink Guijiang" in Chu Ci Shao Si Ming. Cinnamon pulp is a kind of sweet-scented osmanthus, which is picked around the Mid-Autumn Festival and pickled with sugar and sour plum. Jiangnan women are good at turning poems and songs into delicacies on the table.

According to the records of Zhengdejiang Ningxian County, every Mid-Autumn Festival night, Nanjing people must enjoy the moon, which is called "family reunion", "full moon" for drinking and "stepping on the moon" for market. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were Moon Tower and Moon Bridge in Nanjing. In the Qing Dynasty, there was a moon-watching building under Lion Mountain, all of which were for people to enjoy the moon, and most people played the Moon Bridge. When the bright moon is high, people go to the Moon Tower to play the Moon Bridge, so as to enjoy watching the Jade Rabbit.

Dayue Bridge is located in Qinhuai River, next to Confucius Temple, the residence of Ma Xianglan, a famous prostitute. On this night, the literati gathered on the bridge to play the flute, sing songs and reminisce about Niuzhu playing with the moon and writing poems for the moon, so it was called playing with the moon bridge. After the death of the Ming Dynasty, it gradually declined. Later generations have a poem saying: "The romantic Southern Song Dynasty has been exhausted, leaving the west wind to be a long Banqiao, but remember to take the Yuren Bridge and teach the flute under the moon." Longbanqiao, the original Moon Bridge.

After the Republic of China, Nanjing was the seat of the Kuomintang central government, and the society developed abnormally. A banquet was held in front of the Confucius Temple. On August 15th, the Fu family, an official, went boating on the moon near Qinhuai, which made thousands of families miserable. At that time, there was a popular song: "August 15th is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Some people are happy and some people are sad. Some people play the flute upstairs and some people frown downstairs." In addition, there are many old traces at this time, and the river is polluted, so there are not many tourists involved.