Mooncake Packaging Research

The Mid-Autumn Festival (traditional Chinese: 中秋節; simplified Chinese: 中秋节; pinyin: zhōngqiū jié; Vietnamese: Tết Trung Thu) is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people.^[1][2] The festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, during a full moon, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar, close to the autumnal equinox.^[1]
The Government of the People's Republic of China listed the festival as an "intangible cultural heritage" in 2006, and it was made a Chinese public holiday in 2008.^[1] It is also a public holiday in Taiwan. Among the Vietnamese, it is considered the second most important holiday tradition.^[3] The day following Mid-Autumn Festival is a public holiday in Hong Kong and Macau (the festival day itself is not a holiday in Hong Kong and Macau, the logic is that most celebrations are held at night).

Making and sharing mooncakes is one of the hallmark traditions of this festival. In Chinese culture, a round shape symbolizes completeness and unity. Thus, the sharing of round mooncakes among family members signify the completeness and unity of families.^{[citation needed]} In some areas of China, there is a tradition of making mooncakes during the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.^[12] The senior person in that household would cut the mooncakes into pieces and distribute them to each family member, signifying family reunion.^[12] In contemporary times, however, making mooncakes at home has given way to the more popular custom of giving mooncakes to family members, although the meaning of maintaining familial unity remains.^{[citation needed]}
Although typical mooncakes can be around a few inches in diameter, imperial chefs have made some as large as several feet in diameter, with its surface impressed with designs of Chang'e, cassia trees, or the Moon-Palace.^[9] One tradition is to pile 13 mooncakes on top of each other to mimic a pagoda, the number 13 being chosen to represent the 13 months in a full lunar year.^[9]
According to Chinese folklore, a Turpan businessman offered cakes to Emperor Taizong of Tang in his victory against the Xiongnu on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. Taizong took the round cakes and pointed to the moon with a smile, saying, "I'd like to invite the toad to enjoy the hú (胡) cake." After sharing the cakes with his ministers, the custom of eating these hú cakes spread throughout the country.^[13] Eventually these became known as mooncakes. Although the legend explains the beginnings of mooncake-giving, its popularity and ties to the festival began during the Song Dynasty (906–1279 CE).^[5]
Another popular legend concerns the Han Chinese's uprising against the ruling Mongols at the end of the Yuan dynasty (1280–1368 CE), in which the Han Chinese used traditional mooncakes to conceal the message that they were to rebel on Mid-Autumn Day.^[10]

There are many unique mooncake packaging to attractive the customer to buy them. Mooncakes are given as a gift to others as well.