What is the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival, when did it become a legal holiday, and why do we eat mooncakes?
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for families to return home and reunite. Therefore, Mid-Autumn Festival is also a national statutory holiday. So, how did the Mid-Autumn Festival go from being insignificant at the beginning to becoming one of the first-tier festivals? How did mooncakes become the representative food of the Mid-Autumn Festival? Let me reveal them to you one by one. It is the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the mid-autumn weather. The golden wind is rustling, the jade dew is falling, and autumn has arrived quietly. So what should we pay attention to in August of the lunar calendar in 2020? If you want to know more exciting content, please pay attention to Mr. Shui Mo’s website!How did the Mid-Autumn Festival go from being insignificant at the beginning to becoming one of the top festivals?The Mid-Autumn Festival that we value did not have a "name" in the Pre-Qin period. It was just a month name of August without any special meaning.At that time, it was called Zhongqiu, July was Mengqiu, and September was Jiqiu... "Meng, Zhong, and Ji" represent the eldest, second, and third respectively. The ancients were smart and used the habit of ranking by generation, adding the order in front of the season names to form the nicknames of the months, so that people would no longer be worried about mixing up the time. In the Tang Dynasty, when the country was peaceful and the people were prosperous and being fat was considered beautiful, people did not have to worry too much about material life and their spiritual life was enriched. Moon-watching began to become an elegant activity that scholars loved very much. Perhaps because the moon in August is exceptionally round, bright and big, Mid-Autumn Festival began to become closely associated with the moon. For example, the Complete Tang Poems includes Li Jiao's "Two Poems on the Mid-Autumn Moon", which explicitly puts "Mid-Autumn" and the moon together. After the mid-Tang Dynasty, a large number of texts about Mid-Autumn Festival emerged, and during this period there were also many examples and articles that reflected that Mid-Autumn Festival had become a festival. Although the Mid-Autumn Festival had been formed at this time, it had not yet become popular. Its status was not as high as the "big festivals" such as Double Ninth Festival, Chinese Valentine's Day and Dragon Boat Festival, and people did not take it very seriously. Not only was it not treated as a legal holiday, but Mid-Autumn Festival was also not mentioned at all in any books introducing festivals and folk customs at the time. If the inconspicuous Mid-Autumn Festival had always been so "mediocre", we might not have the custom of eating mooncakes and this important holiday today. The turning point of the story occurred in the Song Dynasty. The Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Jin people... The mountains and rivers were broken, people were displaced, and their loved ones were separated. In this tragic mood, people saw the round moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival and especially looked forward to family reunions. At this time, the Mid-Autumn Festival became associated with "reunion"! With this beautiful and positive connotation, the Mid-Autumn Festival is qualified to become a first-tier festival. Sure enough, it was during the Southern Song Dynasty. Records of the Mid-Autumn Festival can be found in many books such as "Menglianglu", "Dongjing Menghualu" and "Sui Shi Guangji". The Mid-Autumn Festival has finally joined the ranks of important festivals! In the third year of Jiatai (1203), Mid-Autumn Festival was certified by the royal seal. Song Ningzong listed the Mid-Autumn Festival as an official legal holiday! After hundreds of years of development and evolution, the Mid-Autumn Festival has basically established its position in Chinese traditional customs. How did mooncakes become the representative food of Mid-Autumn Festival?✦ Some people say that the predecessor of mooncakes was Hu cakes. As early as in the Tang Dynasty, when Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan celebrated the great general Li Jing, he held a Hubing in his hand, pointed to the bright moon in the sky and said with a smile: "We should invite the toad to serve the Hubing." After saying this, he distributed the bread to his ministers to eat together.✦ Many people believe that the words "The small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crisp and sweet fillings inside" written by the great writer and foodie Su Shi in "Farewell to Lian Shou" marked the origin of mooncakes. It is possible that Hu Bing, Xiao Bing, Gong Bing... are all the predecessors of moon cakes, but the documents at that time did not regard them as representative foods of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The close connection between mooncakes and Mid-Autumn Festival dates back to the Ming Dynasty. The following version has been circulated among the people: When Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was uniting various resistance forces to prepare for an uprising, in order to conceal it from the search of Yuan Dynasty officers and soldiers, he hid a note with the words "Revolt on the night of August 15th" inside cakes and secretly gave them to other rebels. After the uprising succeeded, Zhu Yuanzhang was so happy that he immediately issued an oral order, allowing all soldiers and civilians to celebrate the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival together. He also rewarded his ministers with mooncakes, which were used to secretly convey messages when he started the uprising, as seasonal cakes. Since then, the custom of eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival has spread among the people. Regardless of whether this version is correct or not, what is certain is that the "West Lake Sightseeing Guide" of the Ming Dynasty had such a record: "The 15th day of the eighth month is called Mid-Autumn Festival. People give each other mooncakes to symbolize reunion." Mooncakes have now become the most representative food of the Mid-Autumn Festival! |
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