Origin of Moon Cake

It is said that emperors in ancient China would worship the sun in spring and worship the moon in autumn. The civilians also have the custom of worship the moon on Mid-autumn Festival. There is a famous proverb goes that the moon on August 15 (according to the lunar calendar of China) is pretty round and the moon cakes of the Mid-autumn Festival are particularly sweet. This proverb indicates that the people would have some moon cakes on the night of Mid-autumn Day. The moon cakes were used to worship Candra-prabha at first. People take the moon-admiration and moon cake-tasting on Mid-autumn Festival as the symbol of the family reunion gradually. And moon cakes became the festival gifts gradually.

Moon cake was originated from the food which was used to celebrate the triumph of the military in Tang Dynasty. General Li Jing sent a punitive expedition against Huns and returned in triumph on August 15 (according to the lunar calendar of China) during Emperor Gaozu Period in Tang Dynasty.

At that time, there were Tulufan businessmen congratulated Emperor Gaozu on that triumph with cakes. Emperor Gaozu - Li Yuan took the cakes out of the gorgeous box and shared them with his ministers.

The “moon cake” had appearanced in Wu Zimu’s Mengliang Record in Southern Song Dynasty. But the descriptions of the moon-admiration and the moon cake-eating were recorded in the Xihu Tour Record in Ming Dynasty- August 15 is the Mid-autumn Festival, people would celebrate the festival with moon cakes since moon cake has a meaning of reunion. There were more records about the moon cakes and the making of the moon cakes became more delicate in Qing Dynasty.

Today, there is a wider variety of moon cakes and they have different tastes in different places. The Beijing-taste, Suzhou-taste and Guangdong-taste moon cakes are popular around the country.

The moon cake is an indispensable food on Mid-autumn festival since it symbolizes the family reunion. People would also eat some round fruits to pray for peace and happiness.