The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival festival, the festival's customs

1, Origin: The Mid-Autumn Festival is the remains of the ancient celestial worship - the custom of honoring the moon. In the twenty-four "Autumn Equinox" season, is the ancient "moon festival", the Mid-Autumn Festival is from the traditional "moon festival". In traditional culture, the moon and the sun, two alternating celestial bodies, became objects of worship for the first people. The Mid-Autumn Festival originates from the ancient rituals of the moon, which are the remnants and derivatives of the Chinese custom of sacrificing the moon. Moon festival is a very ancient custom in China, which is actually a worship activity of the "moon god" in some places in China in ancient times. According to the evidence, the initial "Moon Festival" is set in the twenty-four seasons of the dry calendar, "Autumn Equinox" this day, but due to historical development, and later calendar integration, the use of the lunar calendar (summer calendar), so the "Moon Festival "From the 24th solar term "Autumn Equinox" to the 15th day of the 8th month of the summer (lunar) calendar. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a synthesis of the seasonal customs of autumn, and most of the festivals and customs it contains have ancient origins.2 On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, there is a custom of burning lamps to help the moon shine. Nowadays, there is still a custom of lighting lamps on towers stacked with tiles in the area of Hunan and Guangdong. In the south of the Yangtze River, there is the custom of making lantern boats. In recent times, the custom of burning lamps in the Mid-Autumn Festival is even more prevalent. Zhou Yunjin and He Xiangfei, "Idle thoughts on the festival", said: "Guangdong, the most prevalent lanterns, each family in the festival ten days before the bamboo strips tied lanterns. The lanterns were made in the shape of fruits, birds, animals, fishes and worms, and the words 'Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival' were painted on colored paper in various colors. Mid-Autumn Festival night lights burning candles with a rope tied to a bamboo pole, erected on the eaves or terrace, or with a small lamp built into a character or various shapes, hanging in the house high, commonly known as 'tree Mid-Autumn Festival' or 'vertical Mid-Autumn Festival'. The lights hung by the rich and noble families, up to several feet high, the family gathered under the lights to drink for fun, the ordinary people are erected a flagpole, two lanterns, but also to take their own fun. The city is full of lights like a glazed world." Mid-Autumn Festival lantern burning custom of its scale seems to be second only to the Lantern Festival. 3, the custom of enjoying the moon comes from the moon festival, a serious sacrifice into a light-hearted entertainment. It is said that this night the moon is the closest to the earth, the moon is the largest, roundest and brightest, so from ancient times to the present day there is the custom of drinking feasts to enjoy the moon; back to the mother's home of the daughter-in-law is the day must return to her husband's home, in order to symbolize the perfect, auspicious meaning. Folk Mid-Autumn Moon Festival activities in the written records appeared in the Wei and Jin dynasties, but did not become a habit. To the Tang Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, play the moon is quite popular, many poets in the famous poem there are moon poems.