Moon Cake 

The moon cake, also called "walnut cake", "palace cake", "small cake", "moon pastry" and "reunion cake" etc, is a special pastry eaten on traditional Chinese Mid-autumn Festival. The annual festival custom of a whole family getting together, eating moon cakes and enjoying the moon dates back thousands of years.

The moon cake first appeared in ancient times as an offering to the moon. At that time, emperors would pay homage to the sun in spring and to the moon in autumn. It was also a custom for the general public to worship or pay homage to the moon in mid autumn in every lunar August. The age-old custom was handed down to later generations and eating moon cakes at the Mid-autumn Festival has become an inseparable part of the celebrations. Various legends about the origin of moon cakes have been circulating in China throughout the ages.

In the Tang Dynasty, bakers and sweet shops specialized in moon cakes appeared in the capital city of Chang’an. In the Ming Dynasty, some bakers engraved the motifs featuring the myth of "Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon" on moon cakes. In the Qing Dynasty, there were more and more records about moon cakes and the making of the cakes were increasingly elaborate. There are a wide range of moon cake types in terms of production locations and flavors. The dozen or so most famous moon cakes by location include Beijing-style moon cakes, Guangdong-style and Suzhou-style moon cakes. The most common flavors include sweet, salty, sweet-salty and spicy etc.

The round moon cake looks exactly like the full moon in the night sky. More importantly, it symbolizes a family get-together and reflects the family culture and the special importance Chinese people attaching to the family reunion. The moon cake is not just a kind of food, but more of a cultural element deeply penetrated into Chinese people's hearts, symbolizing family reunion and embodying spiritual feelings. The moon cake is undoubtedly a key element in the Chinese culture.

While eating moon cakes on Mid-autumn Festival, overseas Chinese miss their relatives and beloved ones in China even more, eagerly hoping to reunite with them. Under China's influence, Southeast Asian countries like Japan, South Korea and Thailand also make it a custom to eat moon cakes on the Mid-autumn Festival.

China's efforts to put the Mid-autumn Festival and moon cake culture on the list of the world's intangible cultural heritages are underway.

                                                月饼

月饼也叫做“胡桃饼”，“宫饼”，“小饼”“月形糕点”和“团圆饼”等等。它是一种在中国传统节日—中秋节时吃的一种特殊甜点。每年全家人聚在一起吃月饼，赏月的习俗已经延续了数千年。

古代的月饼是用来祭祀月亮的祭品。在那时，皇帝要在春季的时候祭祀太阳，秋季的时候祭祀月亮，以表示对它们的敬意。每年农历八月中秋节去祭祀月亮，也是民间的传统习俗。这个古老的节日代代相传，而且中秋节吃月饼的习俗也成为其中不可分割的一部分。各种各样有关月饼起源的传奇故事一直在中国广为流传。

在唐朝的时候，专门做月饼的面包师和甜点店纷纷聚集到了当时的首都长安。在明朝的时候，一些面包师就把以“嫦娥奔月”为特色的图案雕刻到了月饼上面。清朝的时候，出现了越来越多有关月饼的记载，而且月饼的制作方法也变得越来越复杂。就产地和味道而言月饼的类型也是多种多样。大约有12种很有名的地方特色月饼，其中包括“京式月饼”，“粤式月饼”和“苏式月饼”。最常见的味道主要有甜的，咸的，既甜又咸的，还有辣的等等。

圆圆的月饼看起来的确像夜空中的满月。更为重要的是它象征着家庭团圆，反映了中国的家族文化以及中国人赋予全家团圆的特殊含义。月饼不仅仅是一种食物，更是深深植根于中国人心中的一种文化元素，象征着一家团圆，体现了人们内心的感受。毫无疑问，月饼是中国文化中的重要元素。

中秋节吃月饼的时候，海外的中国人更加思念国内的亲人和爱人，渴望与他们相聚。在中国的影响之下，东南亚的一些国家像日本，韩国和泰国也把中秋节吃月饼作为一种传统习俗。

中国正在积极努力将中秋节和月饼文化纳入世界非物质文化遗产之中。