The Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history. Like other traditional festivals, it has also developed slowly. Ancient emperors had a ritual of worshipping the sun in spring and the moon in autumn. As early as in the book "Zhou Li", the word "Mid-Autumn" was recorded. Later, nobles and scholars followed suit. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, they admired and worshipped the bright and round moon in the sky and expressed their feelings. This custom was passed on to the people and formed a traditional activity. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that the custom of worshipping the moon became more important and the Mid-Autumn Festival became a fixed festival. The "Book of Tang·Taizong Ji" records the "Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15". This festival was popular in the Song Dynasty. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it had become as famous as New Year's Day and became one of the main festivals in my country. The legends of the Mid-Autumn Festival are very rich. Myths such as Chang'e flying to the moon, Wu Gang cutting cassia trees, and Jade Rabbit pounding medicine are widely circulated.

According to legend, in ancient times there were ten suns in the sky at the same time, which dried up the crops and made people live in misery. A hero named Houyi, who was extremely powerful, sympathized with the suffering people, so he climbed to the top of Mount Kunlun, gathered all his strength, drew his magic bow, and shot down more than nine suns in one breath, and ordered the last sun to rise and set on schedule to benefit the people.

Hou Yi was therefore respected and loved by the people. He married a beautiful and kind wife named Chang'e. In addition to teaching skills and hunting, Hou Yi spent all his time with his wife. People envied this loving couple with talent and beauty.

Many aspiring young men came to learn from him, and the evil-minded Peng Meng also joined in.

One day, Hou Yi went to Kunlun Mountain to visit friends and seek the truth. He happened to meet the Queen Mother passing by and asked her for a packet of immortality medicine. It is said that taking this medicine can immediately ascend to heaven and become an immortal. However, Hou Yi was reluctant to leave his wife behind, so he had to temporarily give the immortality medicine to Chang'e for safekeeping. Chang'e hid the medicine in the treasure box on the dressing table, but it was seen by the villain Peng Meng, who wanted to steal the immortality medicine and become an immortal himself.

Three days later, Hou Yi led his disciples out hunting. Peng Meng, who had ulterior motives, pretended to be sick and stayed behind. Soon after Hou Yi led his disciples away, Peng Meng broke into the backyard of the inner house with a sword in hand and forced Chang'e to hand over the elixir of immortality. Chang'e knew that she was no match for Peng Meng. In a critical moment, she made a prompt decision, turned around, opened the treasure box, took out the elixir of immortality and swallowed it in one gulp. After swallowing the elixir, Chang'e's body immediately floated off the ground, rushed out of the window, and flew into the sky. Because Chang'e was worried about her husband, she flew to the moon, which was closest to the human world, and became an immortal.

In the evening, Houyi returned home and the maids told him what happened during the day. Houyi was shocked and angry. He drew his sword to kill the villain, but Pengmeng had already escaped. Houyi was so angry that he beat his chest and stamped his feet. He looked up at the night sky and called his beloved wife's name. At this time, he was surprised to find that the moon was particularly bright and clear today, and there was a swaying figure that looked like Chang'e. He desperately chased the moon, but he chased three steps, the moon retreated three steps, he retreated three steps, the moon took three steps forward, no matter what he did, he could not catch up.

Hou Yi was helpless and missed his wife, so he sent people to Chang'e's favorite back garden to set up an incense table and put her favorite honey and fresh fruit on it to offer a remote sacrifice to Chang'e who was attached to him in the Moon Palace. When the people heard the news that Chang'e had ascended to the moon and became an immortal, they set up incense tables under the moon and prayed to the kind-hearted Chang'e for good luck and peace.

From then on, the custom of worshiping the moon on Mid-Autumn Festival spread among the people.

There is another legend about the Mid-Autumn Festival: It is said that the laurel tree in front of Guanghan Palace on the moon is luxuriant and over 500 feet high. There is a man who often cuts it down, but every time he cuts it down, the cut part immediately closes up again. For thousands of years, this laurel tree can never be cut down completely. It is said that the man who cut the tree was named Wu Gang, a native of Xihe in the Han Dynasty. He once followed the immortal to practice Taoism and reached the heaven, but he made a mistake, so the immortal banished him to the Moon Palace to do this futile and hard work every day as a punishment. There is a record in Li Bai's poem that "I want to cut the laurel in the moon and use it as firewood for the cold people."

It is said that eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the vast majority of people in the Central Plains could not bear the cruel rule of the Yuan Dynasty ruling class, and they rose up against the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang united various resistance forces to prepare for the uprising. However, the court officers and soldiers searched very closely, and it was very difficult to pass on the message. Military advisor Liu Bowen came up with a plan and ordered his subordinates to hide a note with the words "Uprising on the night of August 15" inside the cakes, and then sent people to deliver them to the rebels in various places, informing them to respond to the uprising on the night of August 15. On the day of the uprising, all the rebels responded together, and the uprising spread like wildfire.

Soon, Xu Da conquered Yuan Dadu and the uprising was successful. When the news came, 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, and rewarded his ministers with "moon cakes", which were used to secretly convey information when he started the uprising. Since then, the production of "moon cakes" has become more and more sophisticated, with more varieties, and the large ones are like round plates, becoming a good gift. From then on, the custom of eating moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival spread among the people.