We all know that moon cakes are seasonal food for the Mid Autumn Festival. But why eat moon cakes on the mid autumn day? Some people say that because the moon cake is round, it symbolizes the full moon in the sky; others say that the round moon cake should be with the moon in the sky, reflecting people's good wishes for reunion. What is the origin of eating moon cakes on the Mid Autumn Festival? Let's find out.
Moon cake, also known as Hu cake, palace cake, small cake, moon group, reunion cake, etc., is the ancient mid autumn festival offerings to worship the moon god, along with the spread down, notes formed the Mid Autumn Festival eating moon cake custom.
The Mid Autumn Festival is a traditional folk festival in China. In the lunar calendar, a year is divided into four seasons, and each season is divided into three parts: Meng, Zhong and season. August is the second month of autumn, which is called 'mid autumn', so it is called 'mid autumn' by homonym. The moon on the 15th of August is rounder and brighter than the full moon of other months, so it is also called "moon evening" and "August Festival". This night, people look up to the bright moon like jade plate in the sky, and naturally expect their families to reunite. The wanderers, who are far away from home, also take this opportunity to express their yearning for their hometown and relatives. Therefore, the Mid Autumn Festival is also known as the 'reunion festival'.
Moon cakes symbolize reunion and are essential food for the Mid Autumn Festival. The custom of eating moon cakes in the Mid Autumn Festival is said to have been handed down from the end of the Yuan Dynasty.
It is said that in the Yuan Dynasty, the majority of the people in the central plains were unwilling to accept the cruel rule of the Mongols and revolted against the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to unite with the resistance forces, but the officers and soldiers of the Yuan Dynasty searched closely and were unable to transmit information. So Liu Bowen came up with a plan. He ordered Wang Zhaoguang to make pancakes and hide the note with the words "uprising on the 15th night of August" into the cake. Then send people separately to the local uprising army, informing 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 the Mid Autumn Festival was passed down. Especially in the northeast, there is a saying that "kill Dazi on August 15.".
No matter what generation the moon cake originated from, the round moon symbolizes the reunion of people, and the round moon cake symbolizes people's constant life. It has become the wish of people all over the world to cherish the feeling of missing hometown, relatives and praying for a bumper harvest and happiness.
Some people think that eating and sending moon cakes have been related to the mid autumn festival since ancient times. In fact, this is not the case. In the early Tang Dynasty, only the first day of the eighth lunar month was a festival, but not the fifteenth day. It is said that Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty once visited the Moon Palace on the night of August 15, so that the people regard August 15 as the Mid Autumn Festival. In the Mid Tang Dynasty, people began to watch the moon on the night of August 15, when there was no moon cake. When it comes to moon cakes, the earliest time is in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, the 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 mooncakes. They just appeared in the food market as steamed food.
It was in the Ming Dynasty that moon cakes were really associated with the Mid Autumn Festival. At that time, a kind of moon cake with fruit filling appeared in Beijing. People made moon cakes on the Mid Autumn Festival, which were used to eat by themselves and give them to good friends, relatives and friends to express their reunion and congratulations. At that time, the size and shape of moon cakes were very irregular, and their names were quite special.
For example, in Jiexiu County of Shanxi Province, on the Mid Autumn Festival, local people have the custom of sitting around and eating reunion moon cakes. There are many famous and interesting mooncakes, such as crescent moon cakes for men, gourd moon cakes only for women, and moon cakes like "Monkey King" and "rabbit master" specially prepared for teenagers. There are many names. The production technology of moon cakes reached a very high level in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the decorative patterns of "moon toad rabbit" appeared on the surface of some moon cakes. The exquisite design, beautiful composition and fine patterns make people enjoy art, which not only fully reflects the ingenuity of the moon cake makers, but also reflects the splendid culture of our great Chinese nation.
On the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, people get together or miss their relatives and friends from afar. On the Mid Autumn Festival, in addition to enjoying the moon and eating moon cakes, Xiamen people also have a kind of folk activity called "the number one scholar of the game cake" which has been handed down since Zheng Chenggong expelled the Dutch and regained Taiwan. There are 63 pieces of cakes in each meeting, which are different in size. They are divided into six kinds, which represent the number one scholar, the number one person in the imperial examination, Tanhua, Jinshi, Ju Ren and Xiucai. Each person will take turns to roll 6 dice into the bowl, according to the number of dice put into the bowl to lead the cake, to finally win the 'Champion' as luck. For more than 300 years, this kind of fun filled activity has been popular among the people in Xiamen. Xiamen's bakery factories will produce a large number of these cakes before and after the Mid Autumn Festival.
It is a unique custom for Xiamen people to celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival. It is said that more than 300 years ago, Zheng Chenggong ruled in Xiamen to resist the Qing Dynasty. In order to relieve the soldiers' melancholy, encourage the morale, and help drive out the Dutch colonists to recover Taiwan, Hong Xu, together with the staff of the rear yamen hall stationed at No. 33-44 of today's hongben department, worked out the Mid Autumn Festival cake ingeniously to let all the officers and soldiers fight happily in the cool mid autumn night.
In general, four or five people are suitable for a 'will'. There are four top cakes in the imperial examination, i.e., two cakes of Xiucai, one of the best cakes in the imperial examination. This is a symbol of the ancient imperial examination. In ancient times, the young students who passed the provincial examination were called Xiucai; those who passed the provincial examination were called Ju Ren; those who met in the ritual Department of the capital were called Gongsheng; those who were personally presided over by the emperor were called Jinshi, which were divided into three categories: one a and three places, that is, the number one scholar, the number one spot, and the exploration flower, commonly known as the third Ding Jia or third Ji; if there are more places in the second class, the third class will be more. Ancient emperors selected the number one scholar, not only for talent, but also for appearance, but also for surname and name. For example, in the jiachenke palace examination in the 22nd year of Yongle (1424), the number one scholar was sun Yuegong. Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty thought that Gonggong was a "violent" word, which was not auspicious. He was reduced to the third place and Xing KUANYI, who was the third place, was changed to No.1 scholar. This shows that the number one scholar is not necessarily a person with great talent and looks like Pan'an, but the third one is with real talent and practical learning. Therefore, the quality of "three red" in Xiamen Hui cake is particularly good, which means here.
A set of 63 pancakes is based on "three more than nine ru". Three and nine are auspicious numbers in Chinese folk culture.
With Zheng Chenggong's recovery of Taiwan, "Bo Bing" originated in Xiamen has been popular in Taiwan for more than 300 years.
August 15 Mid Autumn Festival, also known as August festival in the south of the Yangtze River, the origin and prosperity of August Festival are related to Nanjing.
As the season of the year, the Mid Autumn Festival came into being relatively late, but the practice of playing with the moon has a long history. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, playing with the moon at niuzhu in Nanjing was the most influential story of appreciating the moon, which evolved into a festival enjoyed by the masses of the people for thousands of years.
Niuzhu (now Caishiji) belonged to moling of Danyang County in Han Dynasty (now Nanjing). According to the book of the continuation of the Han Dynasty, there are niuzhu in the south of moling county. As early as 1600 years ago, the Eastern Jin Dynasty established its capital in Nanjing (then called Jianye). Xie Shang, who was guarding niuzhu, was sailing on the niuzhu River on a moonlit night. He was greatly appreciated when he heard his poem "chanting history" on a ship, so he invited the boat. He was Yuan Hong. At first sight, they chanted poems and talked until dawn. At that time, Xie Shang was a general in Zhenxi, while Yuan Hong was only a poor scholar who depended on transportation and rent. Because of their respect for talent, they broke the barrier of status. Yuan Hong was praised by Xie Shang and became famous from then on. Xie Shang played with the moon and heard that Yuan Hong chanted history in the first place, and the literati and scholars also tended to be later. Therefore, there was a continuous stream of boating and climbing stairs to play with the moon. Li Bai, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, came to Jinling and heard about it. He wrote a poem: "in the past, I heard about the five chapters swimming in niuzhu. Now, how can I thank yuan Jialang? "With deep emotion, I went to sun Chu restaurant in the west of the city to play in the moon and reach the dawn.". Tang Ouyang Zhan's preface to poems on playing with the moon also says: "playing with the moon, Xie Fu and Bao's poems, overlooking the pavilion and in the bright building, all play with the moon.". Tang Ming Huang is a night tour of the Moon Palace. These are all good stories about playing the moon.
August 15, when the third autumn, it is called the Mid Autumn Festival. In the Mid Autumn Festival, the temperature is not cold, the sky is clear, and the moon is in the middle of the sky. In order to play the best time of the month, people love to play the moon at this time. Since the Tang Dynasty, it has gradually become a festival. This is the origin of the Mid Autumn Festival.
In the Song Dynasty, people ate melons and fruits and round cakes on the night of the Mid Autumn Festival, which was the beginning of moon cakes. Su Dongpo has a poem about "cakes are like chewing the moon.". On the night of the Mid Autumn Festival in Southern Song Dynasty, Jiankang (now Nanjing) and Lin'an (today's Hangzhou) competed to release water lanterns, which were especially spectacular (later, Nanjing moved them to July 15, known as "Zhongyuan flood lamps").
In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang was emperor in yingtianfu (now Nanjing). On the second day of August, Xu Da captured the capital of Yuan Dynasty. When the news came, Zhu Yuanzhang was so happy that he gave a message that all the officers and soldiers would enjoy the same happiness with the people in the coming Mid Autumn Festival, and that the moon cakes, which were used to transmit information secretly when the soldiers started, were given to the ministers as seasonal cakes. Since then, the production of 'moon cakes' has become more and more elaborate, with more varieties, such as disks, becoming a good gift. On this night in Nanjing, people painted pictures of Moon Palace, displayed fresh fruits and moon cakes, set fire to Dou Xiang, told stories of "Chang'e flying to the moon", "Wu Gang felled GUI" and "Yutu pounding medicine", and competed to release water lamps. Since then, both the South and the north of the mid autumn festival night are very lively. Northerners eat moon cakes and fruits on this day, and buy rabbit for children to play with. "Rabbit master" can be divided into paper painting, cloth binding and clay sculpture. He has a rabbit head with colorful clothes. He can sit or stand, pound a pestle, or ride an animal to raise a flag. It is very unique.
Southerners like to eat moon cakes, fresh lotus root, cooked Lingling, persimmon, pomegranate, sugar Yutou, etc. Nanjing people drink at night under the moon, and eat the famous Jinling dish, osmanthus duck. 'osmanthus duck' should be in the market when Osmanthus fragrans fragrance, fat but not greasy, delicious. Wine must eat a small sugar taro, poured with cinnamon pulp, the United States does not wait for words. "Guijiang" is named after Qu Yuan's "songs of Chu & middle; Shao Si Ming" and "helping the north to drink Guijiang". Osmanthus fragrans, a sweet osmanthus, is picked around the Mid Autumn Festival and pickled with sugar and sour plum. Women in the south of the Yangtze River are skillful in turning the chants in poems into delicacies on the table.
According to the annals of Jiangning County, Zhengde County, people in Nanjing will enjoy the moon on the night of the Mid Autumn Festival. Family members are called "happy reunion", group sitting and drinking together are called "full moon", and "walking on the moon" when they are out on the streets. In the early Ming Dynasty, there were moon watching tower and moon playing bridge in Nanjing. In Qing Dynasty, Chaoyue tower was built at the foot of lion mountain for people to enjoy the moon. When the moon is high, people climb the moon tower and play the moon bridge together to enjoy seeing the jade rabbit.
The bridge is located in the Confucius Temple, Qinhuai River, Henan Province. Beside the bridge is the residence of Ma Xianglan, a famous prostitute. On this night, scholars gathered at the head of the bridge, playing flute and singing, recalling niuzhu playing the moon and composing poems on the moon. Therefore, this bridge is called the "playing moon bridge". After the death of the Ming Dynasty, it gradually declined. Later generations have poems to go: "the romantic Nanqu has been sold out, and there is a long board bridge in the west wind. But I remember sitting on the jade bridge, and I teach playing flute in Yueming.". Changbanqiao, that is, the original playing moon bridge.
After the Republic of China, Nanjing was the seat of the central government of the Kuomintang. The society developed abnormally. The front lights of Confucius Temple were green and red wine was green. On the 15th of August, the rich and powerful officials sailed in Qinhuai River to enjoy the moon, while thousands of households suffered. At that time, there was a popular song: "August 15 is the Mid Autumn Festival. Some people are happy, others are worried, some people are playing flute upstairs, some people are wrinkled downstairs