When is the Mid-Autumn Festival?

Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival in China, which falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month every year. Legend has it that it commemorates Chang 'e. August 15th of the lunar calendar is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. This is the middle of autumn, so it is called Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the worship of celestial phenomena and evolved from the worship of the moon in autumn in ancient times. Sacrificing the moon is a very old custom in our country, and it is a kind of worship activity for the "Moon God" by ancient people in some places in ancient China. In the autumnal equinox of the 24 solar terms, it is an ancient "Moon Festival". The Mid-Autumn Festival comes from the traditional "Autumn Equinox Sacrificing the Moon". As one of the important ceremonies of folk festivals, the festival of the moon has gradually evolved into activities such as appreciating and praising the moon.

Mid-Autumn Festival is popular in the Han Dynasty, which is a period of economic and cultural exchanges and integration between the north and the south of China, and cultural exchanges between different places spread together. The word "Mid-Autumn Festival" was first recorded in the documents of the Han Dynasty, and it was written in Zhou Li between the Han Dynasty (handed down by Zhou Gongdan, actually written between the Han Dynasty). It was said that there were activities such as "welcoming the cold in the Mid-Autumn Night", "offering good clothes in the Mid-Autumn Festival" and "Autumn Equinox and Mooning (Yue Bai)" in the pre-Qin period.

According to records, in the Han Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival or beginning of autumn's Day was also held to respect and provide for the elderly, and to give them coarse cakes. There were also written records of the Mid-Autumn Festival in Jin Dynasty, but it was not very common. The Mid-Autumn Festival in Jin Dynasty was not popular in northern China. ?

Mid-Autumn Festival custom was popular in northern China in the Tang Dynasty. Mid-Autumn Festival became an officially recognized national festival, about in the Tang Dynasty. The Book of Tang Taizong records the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th.

The custom of appreciating the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival was very popular in Chang 'an area in the Tang Dynasty, and many poets wrote poems about the moon in their masterpieces. The Mid-Autumn Festival is combined with fairy tales such as the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, Wu Gang's felling of laurel, Jade Rabbit's smashing medicine, Yang Guifei's changing the moon god, and Tang Minghuang's visiting the moon palace, so that it is full of romance, and the wind of playing with the moon can only flourish. The Tang Dynasty is an important period in which traditional festival customs are mixed and shaped, and its main part has been passed down to this day.