In three days, it will be the traditional Chinese festival Mid-Autumn Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as "Reunion Festival", "August Festival", "Mid Autumn Festival", "Autumn Festival", etc. Due to its timing during the third half of autumn, it is named Mid Autumn Festival. As a result, the moon is bright and round at night, and the main activity among the people is family reunion and moon viewing, aiming to pray for a happy reunion. Although it is a relatively late custom to extend family reunion from the full moon on the Mid Autumn Festival and take the Mid Autumn Festival as the reunion day, the beautiful psychology and custom of praying for family reunion is an ancient Chinese tradition. Let's take a look at the origin and customs of the ancient Mid Autumn Festival. The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival and the custom of eating moon cakes can be traced back to the custom of autumn worship and moon worship in the pre Qin period. The Book of Rites · Yueling said that in the Mid Autumn Festival, "we should grow old, give some sticks, and eat Congee". This does not explicitly refer to a certain day, but rather includes the observation day (15th day). Mei Cheng's "Seven Fats" clearly mentions the matter of forming friends and observing the waves on the fifteenth day of August, with the phrase "I will use the hope of August to make friends with distant lords and brothers, and go to the Qujiang River in Guangling to observe the waves. Autumn is the season of harvest, and every household worships the Earth God. Over time, a series of customs have formed around autumn worship. At that time, there was also a belief in the moon god among the people, accompanied by a series of moon worship activities. The custom of autumn worship and moon worship laid the foundation for the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the Jin Dynasty, there was already a practice of appreciating the moon during the Mid Autumn Festival. By the Tang Dynasty, appreciating and playing with the moon during the Mid Autumn Festival was quite popular. Moon cakes have already appeared in the Tang Dynasty. According to literature records, once Xizong of the Tang Dynasty ate delicious moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival, he ordered them to be given to new scholars. However, the term "mooncake" did not exist in the Tang Dynasty, and it was not until the Song Dynasty that the name "mooncake" was coined. In addition, people in the Tang Dynasty also liked to eat a kind of food called "Play Moon Soup" on the Mid-Autumn Festival, which was a special dessert refined from longans, lotus seeds, lotus root powder, etc. Appreciating the moon on the night of Mid Autumn Festival is a favorite of the Tang people, as evidenced by poetry. Sikong Tu's "Mid Autumn Festival": "Amidst the leisurely autumn scenery, everything feels leisurely. If there were no moon on this night, the autumn would be empty for a year." Cao Song's "Mid Autumn Festival to the Moon": "In a cloudless world, autumn would be three or five, and we would all gaze upon the sea with frogs. Until the end of the sky, we would never take a private photo of a family." It is a pity that the moon is absent during Mid Autumn Festival. The "Sui Tang Jia Hua" says: "Li Min hides his head in Yangshan, and on the Mid Autumn Festival evening, he holds wine with his friends and looks at the moon. Min says, 'If there were no bright moon, wouldn't we be worried about killing people?' On the Mid Autumn Festival, he appreciates the full moon, thinks of family and friends, and spends a beautiful night with elegance. The "Kaitianbao Yishi" records: "Su Yi and Li Yi were in charge of the Wen Gao, and Emperor Xuanzong was deeply concerned about it. On the night of the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, they stayed overnight in the Forbidden City to play with the moon and prepare a banquet for writing. The sky was cloudless for a long time, and the moon was as bright as day. Su said, 'The clear light is lovely, why use lamps and candles!' He then removed them. 'When admiring the moon, the moonlight and moon shadows were the most lovely, and there was no need for lamps and candles to compete for brilliance.'. In the Song Dynasty, the court officially designated the 15th day of the eighth lunar month as the Mid-Autumn Festival. During the Mid Autumn Festival, Su Dongpo enjoyed drinking Da Dan, and when he was drunk, he expressed his longing for his younger brother and wrote "Shui Tiao Ge Tou", creating a timeless masterpiece. "When will the bright moon be? Ask the blue sky about wine". These sentences have become timeless masterpieces. Mooncakes, as a formal seasonal food, also originated in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, mooncakes were already a variety of Dim sum in the market. Su Dongpo wrote a poem that goes, "Small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crisp and sweet flavors in between." The words "crisp" and "sweet" in the poem describe the main taste characteristics of mooncakes. Dream Liang Record "is a book written by Wu Zimu during the Song Dynasty, which specifically introduces the urban style of Lin'an, the capital city of the Southern Song Dynasty. According to the book, there were many kinds of Dim sum sold in Lin'an market at that time, such as hibiscus cake, chrysanthemum cake, plum cake, moon cake, etc. At the latest in the Ming Dynasty, mooncakes began to have the meaning of "reunion". There is a record in Mingtian Rucheng's "West Lake Tourism Chronicle" that "August 15th is called the 'Mid Autumn Festival', and mooncakes are left behind by the people to symbolize reunion". In the Ming Dynasty, moon cakes were more important as symbolic food of the Mid Autumn Festival. Liu Ruoyu of the Ming Dynasty recorded in his Drinking Records that "on the 15th day, every family would provide moon cakes, melons and fruits, and after burning incense on the moon, they would eat them in a big way, and most of them would end up at night. If there were any moon cakes left, they would still be kept in a dry and cool place. At the end of the year, they would share them with each other, and they would be called 'reunion cakes'." There is also a folk legend about the "moon cake uprising" at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. According to legend, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty arranged one slave owner's henchman in every ten households in order to consolidate their ruling position, and only one kitchen knife was allowed to be used in ten households. The tyranny of the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty was unbearable for the people, so they secretly connected and wrote the call for uprising "On the fifteenth day of August, every family should take action together" on paper, hiding it in mooncakes as a communication signal, and launched an uprising, overthrowing the rule of the Yuan Dynasty in one fell swoop. From then on, mooncakes became a must-have food during the Mid Autumn Festival. In Tao Zongyi's "Yuanshi Yeting Ji" during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, there is a sentence that goes: "On the night of mid autumn, when the moon is at its zenith and the colorful clouds are in harmony, the emperor opens a banquet with music, recommends the dried wings of dragonflies, enters the catfish of autumn wind, drinks the wine of Xuanshuang, and eats the cake of Huayue." Among them, "Huayue cake" should be similar to moon cakes. The Ming Dynasty's "Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" states: "On the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the sacrificial fruit cakes must be round; when dividing melons, they must be carved with staggered teeth, like lotus flowers. Mooncakes and moon fruits are given to each other by the relatives, and the cakes have a diameter of two feet. When a woman returns to peace, she must return to her husband's house on this day, which is called the" Reunion Festival ". Mooncakes are also known as" Reunion cakes ". The" Zhuzhongzhi "states: It is called 'reunion cake'. In the Qing Dynasty, the folk inherited the ancient customs of worshiping the moon, admiring the moon, and eating mooncakes and fruits as a family. The "Yanjing Suishi Ji" also states: "Mid Autumn Festival mooncakes... the largest ones are over a foot in size, with the shape of a toad and rabbit in the Moon Palace painted on them. Some are eaten after the ceremony, while others are kept until New Year's Eve, called 'reunion cakes'." In the Qing Dynasty, there was a custom of "men not worshiping the moon, and women not worshiping the stove," so moon worship activities were mostly attended by women, daughters, and children. Before the worship ceremony, people first offer mooncakes, fruits, and other foods to the moon. After paying their respects, they then divide the mooncake into several pieces according to the number of people eating it. The Qing Dynasty mooncake molds in the collection of the National Museum of China have the Guanghan Palace with half of its surface exposed under the crescent moon carved in the center of the circle. Beside the platform and under the cinnamon tree, there is a jade rabbit holding a pestle and pounding medicine; Outside the center of the circle, fairy mountains surround it, with osmanthus branches in between. Mooncake molds and cake molds are common things in the Qing Dynasty. Dim sum shops and steamer shops are all necessary, so the line of "mold making" is exclusive. Exquisite molds not only have beautiful patterns, but also require great attention to depth and size. Through the continuous exploration of ancient pastry masters, a wide variety of mooncakes with different flavors have been formed in various parts of China, among which Beijing style, Soviet style, Cantonese style, and trendy mooncakes are the most famous. Beijing style mooncakes often use vegetable oil, with the red and white mooncake skins being the most distinctive; The characteristic of Su style mooncakes is that they are heavy in oil and polysaccharides, with rose mooncakes and bean paste mooncakes being the "best" among them; Cantonese mooncakes are heavy in sugar and light in oil, often filled with bean paste, coconut paste, and five nuts. They have a fragrant taste and a soft and glutinous texture; Trendy mooncakes are heavy in oil and sugar, with a soft and smooth texture. In modern times, there are a wide variety of mooncake varieties with colorful fillings, and meat filled mooncakes from the south are particularly popular. Entertainment and catering activities derived from the Mid-Autumn Festival The Record of Dreams in Tokyo by Elder Meng of the Song Dynasty records: "Before the Mid Autumn Festival, all stores were selling new wine, making new connections with colorful storefronts, painting poles with flower heads, drinking fairy brocade and music, and the city people were competing for drinks. By late afternoon, every family had no wine, and they were looking down. It was the time for new crabs. Pomegranate, quince, pear, jujube, chestnut, polo, and colored tangerine were all new to the market. On the night of the Mid Autumn Festival, your home was decorated with tables and pavilions, and people were competing to occupy the taverns and play with the moon. The silk and yellow rivers were boiling. Close to the residents of the inner court, At night, hearing the sound of the Sheng Yu, it was like outside the clouds. Children in Luli played all night long, and the night market was parallel. As far as knowing." On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, every restaurant in the Northern Song Dynasty began to sell new wine. Everyone decorates the colorful building in front of the store, repaints the pole holding the wine flag, and hangs a new banner with the words "Drunken Immortal" written on it. Residents rushed to drink new wine, and by noon, all the hotels had sold out of wine, and they all pulled down their wine flags. At this season, crabs have just arrived on the market, and pomegranates, persimmons, pears, dates, chestnuts, grapes, oranges, and tangerines are also newly launched. On the evening of Mid Autumn Festival, the pavilions and towers of wealthy families are decorated with lights and decorations, while ordinary families flock to restaurants, all for a good place to admire the moon. That night, music played everywhere in the capital. If you live near the palace, you can faintly hear the sound of sheng and yu coming from afar, as if it came from outside the clouds. The children in the streets and alleys played and frolicked all night long, and the night market was overcrowded, lively until dawn. Mid-Autumn Festival food, in addition to moon cakes, but also play with the moon soup, osmanthus wine. Playing with the moon soup can be seen in the Qing Yi Record of Pottery Valley in the early Song Dynasty of the Five Dynasties, as well as in the Shanfu Record of Zheng Wangzhi of the Song Dynasty: "Eating on a diet in Bianzhong, playing with the moon soup in the Mid Autumn Festival." What the taste of playing with the moon soup is now unknown. It is speculated that it may be egg soup, or it may be shaped like the moon, or at least juice egg cakes. However, according to culinary experts, playing moon soup is made from ingredients such as longan, lotus seeds, and lotus root powder. It is said that playing moon soup was still popular in the Lingnan region a hundred years ago. One of the famous dishes in Su cuisine, 'Xishi Playing with the Moon', may have a lingering flavor of ancient playing with the moon soup. It involves adding ham slices, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, and green leafy vegetables to a pot for boiling fish balls, then removing them and placing them on top of the fish balls. The soup is clear and the meatballs are flawless white. Osmanthus wine, see the "Imperial Annals": "In addition to the Mid Autumn Festival osmanthus cake, there are marinated stuffing, sprouted leek and wheat, Nanlu duck, braised piglets, baked meat, together with Zaifa dough and Osmanthus frozen wine." The Mid-Autumn Festival catering activities are mostly carried out by families to enhance the affection between the elderly and young; It is also necessary to exchange gifts between relatives and neighbors to maintain mutual affection. The "Collection of Customs in Beiping" quotes from the "Yueling Guangyi" as saying: "Yan was a commoner city, and during the Mid Autumn Festival, they gave away mooncakes and watermelons, which were called the 'Moon Viewing Festival'." In the Jurong area of Jiangsu Province during the Qing Dynasty, a cake feast was held during the Mid Autumn Festival in August to gather with relatives and friends. The "Kyoto Customs Chronicles" describes the family moon viewing banquet in Beijing during the Qing Dynasty. After paying respects to the moon on the Mid Autumn Festival night, "the elders and children gather in the house to enjoy fruits, vegetables, wine, and dishes, and drink together in the courtyard, which is called 'reunion wine'. (New Society)