In what dynasty did the Mid-Autumn Festival begin?

In addition to eating mooncakes, are there any other customs during the Mid-Autumn Festival?

The word "Mid-Autumn Festival" was first seen in "Zhou Rites".

According to the ancient Chinese calendar, the 15th day of the eighth lunar month falls in mid-August of the autumn of the year, so it is called "Mid-Autumn Festival".

There are four seasons in a year, and each season is divided into three parts: Meng, Zhong and Ji. Therefore, the second month of autumn is called Zhongqiu. It was not until the early Tang Dynasty that the Mid-Autumn Festival became a fixed festival.

"New Tang Book, Volume 15, Chapter 5, Rites and Music 5" records that "the Spring and Mid-Autumn Festivals were laid by King Wenxuan and King Wucheng", and "In the 19th year of Kaiyuan, the Taigong Shangfu Temple was built to retain the marquis Zhang Liang.

Matching. In the Mid-Spring and Mid-Autumn Festival, the Wu sacrifices are made, and the system of animal sacrifice and music is as written."

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Reunion Festival, the August Festival, etc. It is also the second largest traditional festival after the Spring Festival.

The popularity of the Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Song Dynasty. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it had become as famous as New Year's Day and became one of the major festivals in our country.

In addition to eating moon cakes, there are other customs during the Mid-Autumn Festival: appreciating the moon. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, our country has had the custom of appreciating the moon since ancient times. The "Book of Rites" records "autumn twilight and evening moon", which means worshiping the moon god.

By the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night would be held to welcome the cold and worship the moon.

Set up a large incense table and place mooncakes, watermelons, apples, plums, grapes and other seasonal fruits. Mooncakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable.

The watermelon should also be cut into lotus shapes.

In the Tang Dynasty, admiring and playing with the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival was quite popular.

In the Song Dynasty, the custom of enjoying the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival became more popular. According to "Tokyo Menghua Lu", "On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, noble families decorated their terraces and pavilions, and people competed in restaurants to enjoy the moon."

On this day, all shops and restaurants in the capital will redecorate their facades, tie up silk and hang colorful decorations on the archways, and sell fresh fruits and refined foods. The night market is bustling with people, and many people go to the balcony.

Appreciate the moon in the pavilion, place food or arrange a family banquet, reunite the children, and talk to each other while admiring the moon.

After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of appreciating the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival remained unchanged. In many places, special customs such as burning incense sticks, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting tower lanterns, releasing sky lanterns, walking on the moon, and dancing fire dragons were formed.

China has a vast territory, a large population, and different customs. The ways of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival are also diverse and have strong local characteristics.

In Pucheng, Fujian Province, women have to cross the Nanpu Bridge during the Mid-Autumn Festival to seek longevity.

In Jianning, hanging lanterns on the Mid-Autumn Festival night is a good omen to ask for a child from the Moon Palace.

People in Shanghang County celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and most of their children ask the moon aunt when they worship the moon.

When Longyan people eat moon cakes, parents will dig out a round cake with a diameter of two or three inches in the center for the elders to eat, which means that secrets cannot be known to the younger generations.

This custom stems from the legend that mooncakes contain anti-Yuan messages to kill enemies.

Before worshiping the moon during the Kinmen Mid-Autumn Festival, you must first worship God.

In Chaoshan, Guangdong, there is a custom of worshiping the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, mainly for women and children. There is a common saying that "men do not worship the full moon, women do not worship the stove".

In the evening, when the bright moon rises, women will set up tables in the yard and balconies to pray in the air.

Silver candles were burning high, incense was lingering, and the table was filled with fruits and cakes as offerings.

There is also a local custom of eating taro during the Mid-Autumn Festival. There is a proverb in Chaoshan: "When the river and stream meet the mouth, the taro will be eaten."

August is the taro harvest season, and farmers are accustomed to using taro to worship their ancestors.

Although this is related to farming, there is also a widely circulated legend among the people: In 1279, the Mongolian nobles destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, established the Yuan Dynasty, and brutally ruled the Han people.

Ma Fa defended Chaozhou against the Yuan Dynasty. After the city was defeated, the people were massacred.

In order not to forget the suffering of the Hu people's rule, later generations used taro, which is homophonic with "beard head" and resembles a human head, to pay homage to their ancestors. This has been passed down through the generations and still exists today.

Burning pagodas on Mid-Autumn Festival is also popular in some places.

The tower height ranges from 1 to 3 meters, and is mostly built with broken tiles. Large towers are also built with bricks, accounting for about 1/4 of the tower height, and then stacked tiles, leaving a

The tower mouth is used for putting fuel.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, fires are lit, and the fuel includes wood, bamboo, chaff, etc. When the fire is strong, rosin powder is poured on it to ignite the flames, which is very spectacular.

There are also folk rules for burning pagodas. Whoever burns the pagoda until the whole pagoda is red will win. The one who fails to do so or collapses during the burning process will lose. The winner will be given colorful flags, bonuses or prizes by the host.

It is said that the burning of pagodas is also the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival uprising in which the Han people resisted the brutal rulers in the late Yuan Dynasty and used fire as a sign.

Folk customs during the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Jiangnan area are also diverse.

Nanjing people love to eat mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and they must eat Jinling’s famous dish, osmanthus duck.

"Osmanthus duck" is on the market when osmanthus is fragrant. It is fat but not greasy and delicious.

After drinking, you must eat a small amount of sugar taro, poured with cinnamon syrup, it is so delicious.

"Guangxi Pulp" is named after Qu Yuan's "Songs of the Chu: Shao Siming" "Help the North to drink Guangxi Pulp".

Guijiang, also known as sugar osmanthus, is picked around the Mid-Autumn Festival and pickled with sugar and sour plums.

Jiangnan women are skillful in turning the things chanted in poems into delicacies on the table.

Nanjing people call it "celebrating reunion" when they enjoy the moon with their families, "full moon" when they sit together and drink together, and "walking on the moon" when they go out to the market.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Nanjing built the Moon Tower and the Moon Bridge, and in the Qing Dynasty, the Moon Tower was built under the Lion Mountain. They were all for people to admire the moon, and those who visited the Moon Bridge were the most popular.

When the moon is high in the sky, people go to the Moon Tower and visit the Moon Bridge together, and enjoy seeing the Jade Rabbit.