Legend has it that in the Tang Dynasty, moon cakes were not called moon cakes, because there were imported walnuts and sesame seeds in the stuffing, so they were called Hu cakes. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, when Yang Guifei saw the moon while eating Hu cakes, she said on a whim that Hu cakes should be called moon cakes, so the naming right of moon cakes belongs to Yang Guifei. Of course, this is just a folk interpretation. In fact, the earliest written record of moon cakes in China is because of Su Dongpo's poem: "Small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crispy inside and stuffing outside." In other words, since the Song Dynasty, moon cakes have gradually become popular, adding a layer of reunion. The round moon cake just takes the symbolic meaning of reunion. Wan Li is so bright, today is the clearest year. A poem by Zhi Zhu in the Qing Dynasty wrote: "Red and white hair becomes thinner, and the Mid-Autumn Festival is given to Gyeonggi." Beiping folk songs in the Republic of China sang: "The lotus is still in full bloom, and it is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Every household cuts moon cakes, waxed paper horses and prostitutes, guesses fists and orders, and enjoys the moon together. " It is conceivable that moon cakes have become quite popular in the changes of years.
So naturally, in our generation, the Mid-Autumn Festival will naturally eat moon cakes, but it has become a kind of inertia and mechanical existence, forgetting that moon cakes once entrusted our nation's yearning for the god of nature? Now we just regard moon cakes as a kind of food and gift, so pragmatic, but tragically without the pure and beautiful imagination of our ancestors and the simple and awe-inspiring affinity for nature?
Festivals in China have always been associated with eating, such as eating jiaozi in the Spring Festival and eating zongzi in the Dragon Boat Festival, which is related to the agricultural society in our country for thousands of years. Festivals are closely related to agricultural solar terms, and all festivals eat food close to the earth. Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival are three traditional festivals in China. Eating moon cakes naturally becomes so important. The filling of moon cakes can be all flowers, but sweetness is the most important thing. There is a simple reason. Before sucrose and honey appeared in primitive agricultural society, sweetness was once a yearning and longing for people. Ancient philosophers thought it was the two noblest things related to light and the best word related to beauty. Therefore, until now, we are still talking about "sweet life", and it is the noblest embodiment to express the best days with sweetness. Therefore, the sweetness of moon cakes is inevitable and important, which reflects the long-term yearning and praise of a bitter nation for life, especially the round and sweet life.
In the Year of Yanjing in the Qing Dynasty, there is an absolute saying: "Mid-Autumn moon cakes are the first in Kyoto, and there is not enough food elsewhere." When I was a child, my family lived near Qianmenlouzi. The Mid-Autumn Festival is naturally about eating moon cakes from Zhimeizhai, but at that time, most of the moon cakes sold by Zhimeizhai and other shops were four traditional moon cakes: natural, natural, natural, and natural. The fillings were candied with moss and red silk, rich in sesame seeds and peach kernels, but the sweetness of sugar must be rock sugar.
Nowadays, people are more and more afraid of sweetness, and linking sweetness with hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia and obesity makes sweetness a terrible thing. Nowadays, moon cakes naturally cater to people's new tastes. They dare to stuff seafood, abalone, shark's fin, bird's nest and even ginseng. They are as fashionable as colorful faces. We must practice the simple meaning of family reunion and sweet life in the old man's stove. However, the moon cake has become a basket, and you dare to put any stuffing in it. Naturally, I dare to make popular moon cakes into aristocratic top products. Mooncakes of several thousand yuan or even ten thousand yuan, huge in quantity or priceless, are not news. Last year, I actually renovated it into a pure titanium moon cake and "showed it" with the fashion show. With the change of the times, must the folk things in the national tradition disappear? Or do you have to become so commercialized and luxurious? This year, the government issued a mandatory directive prohibiting the luxury packaging of moon cakes, forcing the price of moon cakes to remain high. This is of course a good thing, but it is not a temporary thing to really let the moon cakes return to their original positions. In order to make money, moon cakes are still being renovated, and we play by ourselves. Whenever I think of the big moon cakes and golden moon cakes in the history of moon cakes in China, I can't help but think of a moon cake that Puyi gave to Ying Shao, Minister of the Interior, that was two feet long and weighed twenty pounds. It was already amazing at that time, but now it seems to be a drop in the bucket.
Why do we have to eat moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival? It seems that this question is worth asking ourselves. Xiao Fuxing.