Why Do We Eat Mooncakes During the Mid-Autumn Festival?

If you’ve celebrated the Mid-Festival Festival some time in your life, you’ve probably heard a few stories and legends about the origins of the mooncake and the reasons why we consume them during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

 The most well-known story would be the story of Chang E, who was sent to the moon after swallowing her husband’s elixir, in an attempt to save it from being stolen by her husband’s disciple. Brokenhearted, her husband decided to offer a variety of Chang E’s favourite snacks every year. As time passed, the tradition of offering fruits and cakes to the moon was passed down while people worshipped the moon, and the mooncake was eventually offered to the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival as a tradition to attain Chang E’s blessings.

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 Another well-known, and also one of my favourite stories, is the story of how a city was saved by passing secret messages through mooncakes. During the Yuan Dynasty, the Han Chinese were under a tyranny of Mongolian rule, and they were planning for a rebellion on the 15th day of the 8th month. Secret messages were hidden in mooncakes instructing their people to kill the Mongols on that day and through these hidden messages the Han people were able to kill the Mongols thus led to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Having mooncakes during this period of time is a reminder of victory for these people, thus the tradition was passed on through future generations.

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 As time passes, mooncakes now symbolize reunion, completeness, and togetherness as people reunite with their families for dinner during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The act of cutting mooncakes into slices and sharing them with your family is also the most common tradition that people do.
This season is also a season of giving as people normally buy mooncake gift sets and hand them out to their family and friends.

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