Why do we eat mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, people miss their loved ones even more, which shows that the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunion. Eating mooncakes is also a good implication. Mooncakes are round, which also symbolizes reunion and harmony. The customs in different places are different, but the yearning for a better life is the same. It is also a wonderful thing to get together happily with family on Mid-Autumn Festival, eat moon cakes, cook a table full of delicious dishes, appreciate the bright moon, and talk under candlelight at night.

Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival of reunion, and mooncakes symbolize reunion.

The fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month every year is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. This is the middle of the autumn season, so it is called Mid-Autumn Festival. Legend has it that it is to commemorate Chang'e. In the Chinese lunar calendar, the year is divided into four seasons, and each season is divided into three parts: Meng, Zhong, and Ji. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called Zhongqiu. The moon on August 15th is rounder and brighter than the full moons in other months, so it is also called "Moon Eve" and "August Festival". On this night, people look up at the bright moon in the sky, and naturally look forward to family reunions. Those who are far away from home also use this to express their longing for their hometown and loved ones. Therefore, Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the "Family Reunion Festival."

The Mid-Autumn Festival is known as one of China's four major traditional festivals, along with the Dragon Boat Festival, the Spring Festival and the Tomb-Sweeping Day.

In ancient times, the Chinese people had the custom of watching the moon in the evening of autumn. Xiyue means worshiping the moon god. In the Zhou Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated every year with the welcoming of the cold and the worship of the moon. A large incense table is set up, and offerings such as moon cakes, watermelons, apples, red dates, plums, grapes, etc. are placed on it. Moon cakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable. The watermelon should also be cut into lotus shape. Under the moon, the statue of the moon god is placed in the direction of the moon, red candles are lit, and the whole family worships the moon in turn. Then the reunion moon cakes are cut by the housewife. The person who cuts the cake should calculate in advance the total number of people in the family, including those at home and those away. The cake should not be cut too much or too little, and all should be of the same size.

There are many customs for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the forms are different, but they all express people's infinite love for life and yearning for a better life.