What are the customs and taboos of Ghost Festival in your hometown?

How to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival?

Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as "Orchid Festival" or "Ghost Festival", is a traditional festival for ancestor worship in China. In our place, on that day, we will commemorate our ancestors through various sacrificial activities, such as offering sacrifices, burning paper money, burning incense and so on. We can also set off river lanterns at night to show our memory of our ancestors and pray for peace. Of course, there will be some taboos on that day, such as not going out at night and not putting chopsticks in the middle of eating, because it is disrespectful and unlucky to our ancestors.

July 15 is also called Mid-Autumn Festival, which is called "Lan Festival" by Taoism and "Lan Festival" by Buddhism. Together with Shangsi Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day Festival and Hanyi Festival, it is called the four "ghost festivals". Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival that has existed since ancient times. The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is the harvest time. In order to celebrate the harvest and thank our ancestors, people hold ceremonies to sacrifice their ancestors and express their memory and filial piety.

Taoism has a "three-yuan theory", namely, the heavenly officials in Shangyuan, the local officials in Zhongyuan and the water officials in Xiayuan, which are collectively called the "three great officials". They are representatives sent to the world by the Emperor of Heaven, and their merits and demerits have been tested, so they decide to reward and punish. According to legend, "heavenly god blesses the people ate in the first month, the local official pardoned Zhong Yuan's crime, and the water official relieved Xia Yuancheng on October 15th". On the Mid-Autumn Festival, the gate of the underworld opened.

Let's talk about the customs and taboos of Mid-Autumn Festival in detail:

Ancestor worship is ancestor worship. As mentioned above, ancestor worship is an important activity in Mid-Autumn Festival, and it is a traditional custom to worship the ground and pray for a bumper harvest on this day.

Mid-Autumn Festival is the harvest season of autumn crops. After the harvest, people should share their joy with their ancestors, and it also means "tasting new things" for their ancestors. In addition, people think that a good life cannot be separated from the protection of their ancestors, so they worship their ancestors on that day to express their gratitude and nostalgia. Because in ancient times, people thought that they were blessed by heaven and earth in most cases, so during the autumn harvest, people would hold activities to worship the earth to celebrate the harvest, in order to express their hope for the harvest.

Setting off river lanterns means putting prepared river lanterns into rivers, lakes and seas on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, and letting them float freely, which can take away bad luck and pray for peace.

For example, if you encounter bad luck, you will think that you are unlucky, and the river lamp will drive away these bad luck and pray for peace and smoothness. Therefore, in some important traditional festivals, people will pray for happiness and well-being in order to look forward to the happiness and well-being of themselves and their families. Setting off river lanterns is a very representative custom, which contains a good wish to drive away bad luck and pray for safety and health.

Eat, Mid-Autumn Festival is a big traditional festival in our country, so it is definitely inseparable from eating.

As the saying goes, "July ducks and August taro", this legend has to be told from two aspects. One is the homonym of "duck" and "pressure". Eating ducks is to suppress lonely souls; Second, it is related to seasonal food supplement and health preservation. Ducks are cool, moist but not dry. For such hot and dry weather as autumn, they are only the first choice, both nourishing and delicious.

More importantly, you can eat some flat food or jiaozi, and snacks like jiaozi and cakes. Jiaozi cakes are similar to spring rolls. They are covered with seasonal vegetables. They are very delicious.

Of course, in addition to these important things to do, don't forget the taboos. For example, as mentioned earlier, you can't go out for a night outing, you can't put chopsticks in the middle of a meal, and you can't quarrel with people, because quarreling means bad luck and will affect your good fortune and good luck. These are the taboos of Mid-Autumn Festival.

As the saying goes, "don't go out after midnight", that is to say, July of the lunar calendar, especially the Mid-Autumn Festival, is not suitable for traveling before the sun comes out and after sunset. Because the gate of hell is open on this day, ghosts wander around, and the yin will be heavier at night, which is not suitable for going out. It is also not suitable for hanging clothes at night, saying that they will be worn by homeless "people" and the clothes they wear will make people sick. Therefore, whenever we see the sun set in the Mid-Autumn Festival, we will put away the dried clothes in time.

Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the biggest festivals for people in China, so people usually give priority to offering sacrifices, and the customs are similar, some are too small and some are too big. We usually spend three days (thirteen, fourteen and fifteen), and the taboos are different. China has a vast territory, rich products and various customs and manners. However, good customs should be passed down by our descendants, and it is also the traditional virtue of China to get rid of the disadvantages and develop the advantages. Let's celebrate the special traditional Mid-Autumn Festival!