The reason why Ningbo celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 16 was related to Shi Hao, Prime Minister of Southern Song Dynasty. "

Another legend is that at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang prepared to unite various rebel forces against the Yuan Dynasty, but the officers and men of the Yuan Dynasty searched very closely and it was very difficult to transmit the news. Liu Bowen, a military adviser, ordered his men to wrap small pieces of paper with the time and place of the uprising in mooncake stuffing, and sent people to the uprising troops in various places to inform them to respond to the uprising on the evening of August 15.

Unexpectedly, due to the long distance, it was already August 16 when the uprising signal arrived in Ningbo. Zhu Yuanzhang's army had already captured the Yuan Dynasty and established the Daming regime. The uprising was successful and the people reunited. Zhu Yuanzhang sent Zhu Zuliang, a general, to the east of Zhejiang as the magistrate of Mingzhou to convey Zhu Yuanzhang's message: the "moon cakes" used to secretly convey information when starting the army were given to ministers as seasonal cakes.

To commemorate the day when the uprising signal reached Ningbo, the custom of eating moon cakes spread on August 16th. And because the moon is usually rounder on August 16, there is a custom of family reunion on Mid-Autumn Festival at this time.