What are the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, the Autumn Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the August Festival, the August Festival, the August Meeting, the Moon Chasing Festival, the Moon Festival, the Moon Festival, the Moon Festival, the Daughter's Festival, or the Festival of Reunion, is a traditional cultural festival that is popular among many ethnic groups in China and the countries of the Chinese character cultural circle, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar; because of its value in the half of the three Autumns, so called, and in some places will be set in the sixteenth month of the August Mid-Autumn Festival.

Mid-Autumn Festival customs are: moon festival, moon festival, moon worship, lanterns, lantern riddles, eating moon cakes, watching the tide, osmanthus flowers, drinking osmanthus wine, playing lanterns and so on. I think in the Mid-Autumn Festival how many customs, the most noteworthy 5 , the following with me to see it:

? One of the Mid-Autumn Festival customs: Guessing lantern riddles?　

Mid-Autumn Festival riddle guessing is a traditional custom and activity of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival riddles originated from a long history in our country, so far there are more than three thousand years of history. Spring and Autumn and Warring States period appeared "cryptic", which is the prototype of the riddle. In the Han Dynasty, the "cryptic language" began to be divided into two directions. A class to describe the characteristics of the main thing riddles; the other type of text shape and meaning of the main riddles. In the Wei Dynasty, it was called "riddle".

With the flourishing of poetry in the Sui and Tang dynasties, poetry riddles appeared in large numbers and became the mainstream. From the Song Dynasty onwards, some literati and scholars often posted riddles on various lanterns on the night of the Lantern Festival to attract pedestrians to guess and shoot, and this is how "lantern riddles" came about. After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, riddles flourished and many riddlers emerged. After the Xinhai Revolution, the riddles formed two styles of southern and northern schools, to the old society, because most of the riddlers are the scholarly class, some literati pretended to be noble, one-sided emphasis on elegance and exclusion of folk riddles.

After the liberation of China, under the guidance of the Party's "let a hundred flowers blossom" policy of literature and art, lantern riddle activities flourished, and riddles became more and more perfect and rich, making great contributions to the construction of socialist spiritual civilization and the activation of the cultural life of the masses. Currently, there are lantern riddle activities and lantern riddle academic exchanges in Chinese overseas Chinese all over the world.

? Mid-Autumn Festival Customs No. 2: Eating Mooncakes?　

Mooncakes, also known as moon balls, harvest cakes, reunion cakes, etc., are one of China's traditional Han cuisine. ? Mooncakes were originally used as offerings to worship the moon god, and have a long history of origin. The word "mooncake", in the existing literature, was first recorded in the Southern Song Dynasty in Wu Zimu's "Meng Liang Lu". Mid-Autumn Festival to enjoy the moon and eat moon cakes is a necessary custom of the Mid-Autumn Festival across China, as the saying goes: "August 15 moon is full, Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes fragrant and sweet."?

To the Ming Dynasty, the custom of eating mooncakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival is more common. Ming Shen Bung "Wan Department Miscellany" contains: "the common people's families are all to the month of making face cake each other, the size varies, called the moon cake." Discretionary Zhi said: "in August, the palace to appreciate the autumn begonias, jade hairpin flowers. Since the first day of the month, there are mooncake sellers, to the fifteenth day, every family offers mooncakes, fruits and melons. If there are leftover moon cakes, is the whole collection in a dry and cool place, to the end of the year to share the use of, said the reunion cake also."

There are a lot of records about mooncakes from the Ming Dynasty onwards, when mooncakes were already round and were only eaten on the Mid-Autumn Festival, and they were the main offerings during the Mid-Autumn Festival moon festival, which was prevalent among the people from the Ming Dynasty onwards. The Emperor's Capital Scenic Spectacle said, "August 15 moon festival, its offering of fruit cakes must be round." "Home set moonlight is located in the moon out of the square, to the moon and worship, then burn moonlight paper, withdraw the offerings, scattered family members must be all over. Mooncake moon fruit, relatives feed each other, the cake has a diameter of two feet. But the famous Northern Song writer Su Dongpo left "small cakes like chewing the moon, there are crispy and syrupy" poem, perhaps this is the source of the name of the moon cake and the moon cake practice based on.

? The third custom of the Mid-Autumn Festival: enjoying osmanthus flowers?　

The eighth month of the lunar calendar is known as the month of laurel, and this month is the best time to enjoy laurel. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, the laurel blossoms, and Suzhou and Hangzhou, which are as beautiful as heaven, are immersed in the fragrance of the laurel. On a clear night with a full moon, family members can enjoy a glass of wine and enjoy the fragrance of osmanthus, which is very refreshing and invigorating. China's osmanthus, the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, since ancient times and the cultural life of the people of China are linked together, many poets poetry to describe it, praise it, and even put it to the deification of the Chang'e Run to the Moon, Wu Gang felled the cinnamon series of myths of the Moon Palace, it is the osmanthus flowers to link them together.

Song Dynasty Han Zicang poem: "the moon in the guest has been divided into species, the world without flowers dare to fight incense", said the osmanthus tree "since the first stream of flowers", in recent times, by the mass selection, osmanthus jumped on the throne of the 10 most famous flowers. Osmanthus has a lot of names, because of its leaf veins shaped like gui and called "gui", because of its dense material, texture such as rhinoceros and called "wood rhinoceros", because of its natural distribution in the clumps of rocky ridge and called "rock laurel", because of its fragrance when it blooms, and because of the fragrance of the flowers. Because of the blossom of the fragrance of the nose, the fragrance floats for miles, so also called "seven miles incense", "nine miles incense".

Since ancient times, the osmanthus tree has had a close relationship with the moon, and has an auspicious meaning. Legend has it that there are osmanthus trees in the moon, five hundred feet high. During the Han Dynasty, there was a man from Heshi, Wu Gang, who was punished for not following the rules of Taoism when he was learning to be an immortal, and was sentenced to cut down the laurel tree in the moon, but the tree was cut down as it went along, and it could not be cut down. Ten million years have passed, although Wu Gang daily hard to cut down the tree more than, but the laurel tree is still the same, vibrant, every time the Mid-Autumn Festival, the fragrance overflowing. Only on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Wu Gang was able to rest under the tree and spend the reunion festival with the earth ****. Mid-autumn full moon night, under the osmanthus tree accompanied by the fragrance of osmanthus flowers to enjoy the moon, enjoy osmanthus flowers is more unique, because osmanthus flowers send people to the pursuit of sweet life and praise.

? Mid-Autumn Festival custom No. 4: drinking osmanthus wine?　

Since ancient times, China has had the custom of drinking osmanthus wine on the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the memory of the older generation, three elements are indispensable for a traditional Mid-Autumn Festival night: the bright moon, mooncakes and osmanthus wine.

Every Mid-Autumn night, people look up at the laurel in the moon, smell the fragrance of osmanthus, drink a cup of osmanthus honey wine, and celebrate the sweetness of the family and get together, which has become a kind of beauty enjoyment of the festival. Osmanthus flowers are not only ornamental, but also have food value. Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs", there will be "aid steed bucket Ruizhi cinnamon pulp" "Dien Gui wine Ruizhi pepper pulp" poem. It can be seen that our country drink cinnamon winemaking years, has been quite a long time ago.

Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone's first choice is to eat mooncakes, because mooncakes have a sweet and greasy feeling, eat more will feel very tired. So the elders, like to drink some osmanthus wine, or osmanthus tea to get rid of the fatigue. Osmanthus, known as "nine miles of fragrance", can also be made into a lot of food. It has a strong flavor and tastes very good when made into other foods. For example, we often hear of osmanthus cake and osmanthus tea, these are osmanthus products. After autumn, osmanthus flowers bloom and begin to fall as mid-autumn approaches. People will pick up the osmanthus flowers and brew them into osmanthus wine. The osmanthus wine brewed from osmanthus flowers has a mellow flavor and is sweet and sour. After drinking it, the aftertaste will remain for a long time. After eating mooncakes, drinking some osmanthus wine plays a role in relieving fatigue, and, moreover, osmanthus wine is helpful for sleep.

Besides that, drinking osmanthus wine in mid-autumn actually has a moral meaning. Osmanthus is a symbol of wealth and good fortune. "Gui" and "Gui" are the same sound, which is a symbol of affluence. Therefore, osmanthus wine is very popular among people. There is a legend about osmanthus wine about Wu Gang, who, as we all know, was an immortal who lived on the moon and was punished by the Heavenly Emperor for cutting down osmanthus trees in the Moon Palace. It is said that once, he almost froze to death at the door of the immortal wine lady, who saved him. So he repaid the Fairy Wine Lady with cinnamon, which, after being planted, grew into a cinnamon tree and blossomed, filling the garden with the fragrance of cinnamon.

Because Wu Gang lived in the "Moon Palace", that is, on the moon, and because of the connection with the moon, people would naturally think of the osmanthus wine related to him every Mid-Autumn Festival. When people celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, a full moon hangs in the sky, and people eat mooncakes and drink osmanthus wine in the yard. The reason why people drink osmanthus wine in Mid-Autumn is because of the above mentioned. Osmanthus has the reputation of "nine miles of fragrance", and the custom of enjoying osmanthus at Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history.

? Mid-Autumn Festival custom No. 5: tide watching?　

In the area of Zhejiang Province, the Mid-Autumn Festival now also has the custom of watching the tide. The tidal wave can be regarded as one of the major events of the Mid-Autumn Festival, which was recorded in the history books as early as the Han Dynasty. Now the Mid-Autumn Festival has been designated as a legal holiday by the state, not only China attaches importance to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but also some Chinese and overseas Chinese in foreign countries will celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The moon is full and big on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, so if you can stand on the shore and look at the moon from afar, you can not only bring out the festive atmosphere, but also reflect the Mid-Autumn Festival culture in the best way. The custom of mid-autumn tide-watching has a long history, as early as in the Han Dynasty, there was a fairly detailed account in the "seven hairs" fugue of Meixian. After the Han Dynasty, the custom of watching the tide in mid-autumn was even more prevalent. Ming Zhu Tinghuan "Additions to the old story of Wulin" and Song Wu Zimu "Meng Liang Records" also have tide watching records.

The Southern Song Dynasty, the tide of the custom is more prosperous, Zhou Mi has made "tide" words: "Zhejiang tide, the world's great view. Since the hope to eighteen days for the most prosperous. Fang its far out of the sea door, only as silver line, both and gradually, is the jade city snow ridge, the sky to come, loud as thunder, shocking shooting, swallowing the sky and the sun, the potential is extremely heroic." Su Shi also wrote in the word: "August 18 tide, the world spectacular no." .

"Tide watching" is a popular mid-autumn custom in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, as well as Jiaxing area. Every year on the eighteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the Qiantang River has a tidal wave, the waves of the rising tide of the mountains and the momentum is very spectacular, known as "the world's first tide".

The customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival vary from north to south, but one thing is basically the same, that is, the whole family reunion, visit friends and relatives, visit elders, etc., may we will be able to these full of affection and good wishes of the customs and origins of the heart, and passed on from generation to generation.