Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns are bright, colorful, and come in many different sizes and shapes. ZHOU CHAO/FOR CHINA DAILY

Mooncakes as a symbol of reunion

Mooncakes have become intrinsically linked to the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In Chinese belief, the roundness of the full moon, seen on the Mid-Autumn Day, means "togetherness. "The mooncake, so called because it resembles the shape of a full moon, is also regarded as a symbol of family reunion and good luck, according to Wang Laihua, a folk-custom expert from the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences.

It is customarily offered between friends or on gatherings during celebrations of the festival. In the cities, mooncakes are often provided with other gifts by employers to their staff for the festival.

Mooncakes, typically consisting of a thin and flaky pastry enveloping a sweet and dense filling, used to be made at home as a family reunion activity, but very few people do so nowadays.

There are various mooncakes on the market, some are for home consumption, while others are expensively packaged to be given as gifts.

Wang observes that the name "mooncake" was first recorded during the Song Dynasty, but it was still not a very popular repast back then.

It was not until the Ming Dynasty that mooncakes became the official food of the festival, and their popularity gradually spread. In fact, many descriptions about eating mooncakes during the festival can be found in various historical records from the Ming Dynasty period.

Nowadays, the variety, flavor and design of the mooncake are continuously evolving to both reflect more advanced cooking techniques, and to match modern tastes.