Traditional customs of Chaoshan Mid-Autumn Festival

Traditional customs of Chaoshan Mid-Autumn Festival;

First, enjoy the moon and eat moon cakes in Yue Bai.

There is a custom of enjoying the moon and eating moon cakes everywhere in the Mid-Autumn Festival. There are two different stories about eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival: one is the story that Emperor Taizong distributed moon cakes to hundreds of officials for tasting after winning the frontier exploration.

On the other hand, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the people of the Central Plains could not bear the cruel rule of the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty and revolted one after another. However, the officers and men of the imperial court were heavily guarded, and it was very difficult to transmit the news. They hid a note with the words "August 15th Uprising" in a moon cake, and all the rebels revolted as soon as they saw these words. Eating moon cakes in Chaoshan Mid-Autumn Festival mainly comes from this theory.

Second, taro worships ancestors and eats taro.

There is a saying in Chaoshan: "When the river is opposite to the mouth, you will eat taro." August is the harvest season of taro, and farmers are used to using taro to worship their ancestors. Of course, this has something to do with farming, but there is also a popular folk legend: 1279, Mongolian nobles destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, established the Yuan Dynasty, and brutally ruled the Han people.

Mafa defended Chaozhou against the Yuan Dynasty. After the city was broken, the people were slaughtered. In order not to forget the suffering of Hu people's rule, later generations used taro as a homonym with "Hu tou", which looked like a human head, in order to pay homage to their ancestors and pass it on from generation to generation, and it still exists today.

Third, burning tile towers.

Burning tile kilns (that is, "burning tile towers") on Mid-Autumn Festival night is another custom in Chaoshan. The height of the tile kiln varies from 1 to 3 meters, mostly broken tiles. The big tile kiln should be made of bricks, and after reaching a certain height, the tiles should be stacked again. There should be a kiln door under the brick kiln for fuel transportation. In recent years, all the tile kilns built in some places are made of bricks. The height of the tile kilns is more than 3 meters, with two or three floors, which attracts people from all over the world to watch.

Fourth, drop the gods.

Divination is also a mysterious and interesting activity on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival. It is said that when the Mid-Autumn Festival comes, the gods will also go to enjoy the moon. Therefore, on this day, people can make God manifest through a special ceremony or spell. Therefore, people often carry out mental activities on this day, mainly related to hitting children and inviting baskets.

Chaozhou moon cake

Burning tile towers, turning off performers and turning off aunts are all common customs in Mid-Autumn Festival. The entertaining ones are still preserved. Watt Tower is a small tower built with waste bricks in the open space, with different sizes. There are holes in the top of the tower, firewood in the center of the tower, and teenagers burn the tower for fun. After the fire, the rosin combustion improver was sprinkled, and the fire went straight to the top of the tower, which was spectacular; Sprinkle salt, crackle, such as setting off firecrackers.

There is also the custom of burning towers in some places. Whoever burns the whole tower red will win. Jieyang battery and other places have the custom of building bamboo towers, which are tens of feet high. When burning, the whole tower burned out, and the fire was fierce and more spectacular.