"Mid-Autumn Festival" means the middle of autumn. August in the lunar calendar is a month in autumn, and the 15th is a day in this month. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival may be a custom passed down from the ancient Autumn Newspaper.
The protagonist of Mid-Autumn Festival is moon cakes. There are many legends about the origin of moon cakes, and the more popular view appeared in the Tang Dynasty. In the early Tang Dynasty, the East Turkistan was powerful. Tang gaozu rose from Taiyuan and surrendered to Turk Khan, in exchange for relative stability in the north. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the Turks supported the separatist forces such as Xue Ju and Liu Wuzhou to fight against the Tang Dynasty. On the other hand, he relied on the army to strengthen Mazhuang and constantly invaded and transferred troops south. In order to pacify the invasion of foreign enemies in the north, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan appointed Li Jing, a famous soldier at that time, as commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition (marching general) to counter the Turks and finally win.
The day of Li Jing's triumph happened to be August 15, and that night Turpan people just presented cakes to Li Yuan. Li Yuan was sharing the good news of Li Jing's victory with ministers. He was very happy to see the round cake. He smiled at the sky and blurted out, "You should invite toads to eat Hu cakes." The general meaning of this sentence is, please come down to earth and share this delicious Hu cake with everyone. Tang gaozu then distributed Hu cakes to ministers, who tasted them together and enjoyed the moon together. It is said that the custom of eating moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15 came from this and spread from the court to the people.
When the mirror rose into the sky, there was silence among the clouds. -"Mid-Autumn Festival" Li Pu
A round of autumn shadows turned to golden waves, and the flying mirror was re-ground. -"Tai Chang Yin" Xin Qiji