About Chinese Traditional Festivals

The first festival of the year: Taichun

(The first festival of the year is "Lichun", which is often called "Taichun". Why do you call it that? In our history, there is a custom that every year on the day of the spring, people dressed in festive costumes, carrying a large papier-maché ox, singing and dancing on the streets. After the parade, the papier-maché plowing ox carried to the county office of the public hall, by the magistrate of the new self-whip three, meaning: the earth back to spring, hurry to plow. Therefore, people called the spring "spring".)

January 1: New Year's Day

("New Year's Day" is the earliest word from the poem "Jieya" by Xiao Ziyun, a Liang scholar of the Southern Dynasty: "New Year's Day of the four qi, the first day of the ten thousand lives". Yuan is the beginning, the first meaning; Dan is a Chinese character, above the "day" means the sun, below the "one" means the horizon. The sun rises over the horizon, symbolizing the beginning of the day. New Year's Day is the first day of the year.

January 1, Gregorian calendar, is recognized as New Year's Day in today's world. China's New Year's Day through the ages, the date is not consistent. Such as the first day of the first month of the Xia Dynasty; the first day of December in the Shang Dynasty; the first day of November in the Zhou Dynasty, and so on. September 27, 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Association through the use of the "AD chronology", will be January 1 as New Year's Day on the Gregorian calendar.)

The 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar: the Lantern Festival

(also known as the "Festival of the New Year", that is, the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar. It is an important traditional festival in China. In ancient books, this day is called "on the Yuan", and its night is called "Yuan night", "Yuan Xi" or "Lantern Festival". The name "Lantern Festival" has been used until now. Since the Lantern Festival has the custom of opening and watching the lanterns, it is also known as the "Festival of Lights" in folklore. In addition, there are also eating Lantern Festival, stilt walking, riddles and other customs. China's ancient calendar and the phase of the moon has a close relationship with the fifteenth day of the month, people ushered in the first full-moon night of the year, this day is rightly regarded as an auspicious day. As early as the Han Dynasty, the fifteenth day of the first month was used as a day to worship the emperor and pray for blessings. Later, the ancients called the 15th day of the first month "Shangyuan", the 15th day of the 7th month "Zhongyuan", and the 15th day of the 10th month "Xiayuan". At the latest, in the early North and South Dynasties, Sanyuan was already a day to hold a grand ceremony. Among the three elements, the first element was the most important. Later, the celebrations of the Middle and Lower Yuan were gradually abolished, while the Upper Yuan has endured.)

March 8: Women's Day

March 12: Tree Planting Day

The day before Qingming Festival: Cold Food

(A festival in the old custom, one day before the Qingming Festival [two days before the Qingming Festival, in one case]. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Duke of Jin, Chong Er, who had been dead for many years, returned to his throne [i.e., the Duke of Jin], and rewarded the ministers who had died with him, but only Jie Zhi Tui was left out. Jie Zhitui then took his mother to live in seclusion in Mianshan Mountain [now southeast of Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province]. Duke Wen of Jin learned of this and wanted to reward him, so he searched for him in Mianshan Mountain and could not find him, so he tried to burn the mountain to force him to come out. However, Jie Zhi Tui insisted on not coming out, and as a result, both mother and son were burned to death. Duke Wen of Jin then forbade people to burn rice on this day every year to mourn the death of his mother and son. Later, the custom of eating cold food and sweeping graves on the day of cold food was formed.)

April 5: Ching Ming Festival

(Ching Ming Festival is a traditional festival in China and the most important festival of worship, a day for ancestor worship and grave sweeping. Tomb-sweeping is commonly known as visiting the graves, an activity to honor the dead. Most Han Chinese and some ethnic minorities sweep their tombs on Qingming Day. According to the old custom, when sweeping tombs, people should bring wine, food, fruits, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer the food in front of their loved ones' graves, then incinerate the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, fold a few tender green new branches and stick them on the graves, then bow down and perform rituals and worship, and then eat the wine and food and go home at last. Du Mu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem entitled "Qingming": "The rain falls one after another during the Qingming Festival, and the pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Where can I find a tavern? The shepherd boy points to the apricot blossom village." It writes about the special atmosphere of Qingming Festival.

The Qingming Festival, also known as the Treading Green Festival, according to the solar calendar, it is between April 4 and 6 every year, which is the time of spring when the grass and trees spit out the green, and it is also a good time for people to go on spring excursions [called trekking in ancient times], so the ancients had the custom of trekking in the Qingming Festival and carrying out a series of sports activities.)

May 1: Labor Day

Fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar: Dragon Boat Festival

(The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar is the Dragon Boat Festival. Duanwu" is originally called "Duanwu", and "Duan" means the beginning. "Five" and "Wu" for each other as a harmonic and universal. It is an ancient festival in China. China's earliest patriotic poet Qu Yuan in ancient times

Being exiled by slander, witnessed the growing political corruption in Chu, and not to realize their own political ideals, inability to save the perilous motherland, and then threw himself into the Bioluo River in order to martyrdom. After that, people in order not to make the fish and shrimp eat their bodies, have used glutinous rice and flour into various shapes of cakes into the river, which later became the Dragon Boat Festival to eat zongzi, fried cake source. This custom has spread abroad.)

June 1: Children's Day

July 1: Founding Day of the Chinese Communist Party

July 7: Memorial Day of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression

The seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar: Tanabata Valentine's Day

(The evening of the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is known as "Tanabata". China's folklore is that the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden meet on this night at the Bridge of Magpies in the Sky River, and then there are women who beg for coquettish things by threading needles to the Weaving Maiden star on this night. The so-called begging for coquettish, that is, under the moonlight to the Vega star with colored thread through the needle, such as can pass through seven different sizes of the eye of the needle, even if it is very "coquettish". Farmer's proverbs say "the seventh day of the seventh month is clear and bright, grinding sickle cut good rice." This is the time to sharpen the sickle and prepare for the early rice harvest.)

Thirteenth day of the seventh lunar month: Respect for the Elderly Day

First day of the eighth lunar month: China's Army Day

Fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month: Mid-Autumn Festival

(On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the day falls in the middle of the autumn season, and is therefore known as "Mid-Autumn Festival. In the evening, the moon is full and the fragrance of laurel, the old custom people see it as a symbol of reunion, to prepare a variety of fruits and cooked food, is a good festival to enjoy the moon. Mid-Autumn Festival also eat moon cakes. According to legend, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, in order to overthrow the brutal Yuan Dynasty, the people wrote the date of the riot on a note and put it in the mooncake filling so as to pass it secretly to each other, calling for an uprising on August 15th. Finally, on this day, a nationwide peasant uprising was baked, overthrowing the corrupt Yuan Dynasty. Since then, the custom of eating mooncakes at mid-autumn has spread even more widely.)

The ninth day of the ninth lunar month: Chongyang Festival

(The ninth day of the ninth lunar month. China's ancient to nine for the Yang, September 9 is the yin and yang day, so the name "Chongyang". Legend has it that in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ru Nan Huan Ying, heard Fei Changfang said to him, September 9 Ru Nan will have a big disaster, quickly called the family sewing small generation, filled with cornelian cherry, tied to the arm, climbed the mountain, drink chrysanthemum wine, to take refuge. Huanjing this day the whole family mountaineering, home at night, really home chickens, dogs, sheep all dead. Since then, the folk have been in the Chongyang Festival do Cornus generation, drink chrysanthemum wine, hold a temple fair, climb high and other customs. Because "high" and "cake" sound the same, so the Chongyang Festival and eat "Chongyang cake" custom. Wang Wei, a poet of Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem "Remembering the Brothers of Shandong on September 9", which reads: "Being a stranger in a foreign land, I think of my relatives twice as much at festivals. I know from afar where my brothers are climbing up, and I have less Cornus officinalis to plant." The poem records the customs of the time. The poem is still popular today because of its sincerity of feeling.)

September 10: Teachers' Day

October 1: National Day

November 22: Winter Solstice

(In ancient times, China attached great importance to the winter solstice, which was regarded as a big festival, and there was a saying that the winter solstice was as big as a year, and there was a custom of celebrating the winter solstice. The book of han said: "winter solstice yang qi up, jung dao long, so congratulations." People think: after the winter solstice, the day is longer than one day, Yang Qi rise, is the beginning of a cycle of festivals, is also an auspicious day, should be celebrated. The Book of Jin" on the record "Wei Jin winter solstice day by all the countries and bureaucrats to congratulate ...... its instrument subdivided into the first day." This shows the importance of the winter solstice in ancient times.

Now, some places still take the winter solstice as a festival. Northern regions have the custom of slaughtering sheep, eating dumplings and wontons on the winter solstice, while southern regions have the habit of eating winter solstice rice balls and winter solstice long thread noodles on this day. There is also the custom of offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors on the winter solstice in various regions.)

The eighth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar: Lunar Festival

(In ancient times, the December sacrifice to the "gods" was called Lunar, so the twelfth month of the lunar calendar is called Lunar. On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, the old custom to drink Laha congee. Legend has it that Siddhartha Gautama attained Buddhahood on this day, so monasteries cook congee for Buddha every day, and then folk custom until today.)

Third day of the Lunar New Year in the twelfth month of the lunar calendar: New Year's Eve

(The night of the thirtieth day of the Lunar New Year is called New Year's Eve. The original meaning of the word "除" is "去", which is derived from "易"[交替]; the original meaning of the word "夕" is "日暮", which means "sunset". The original meaning of the character "夕" is "sunset", which is derived from "night". Therefore, the night of New Year's Eve contains the meaning of "the old year will be removed here, and the new year will be replaced tomorrow". The word "New Year's Eve" means to get rid of the old and bring in the new. New Year's Eve first originated in the pre-Qin period, "by removing". According to "Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals - The Record of the Seasonal Winter", the ancients used to beat drums on the day before New Year's Eve to get rid of "epidemics and plague ghosts", so that the coming year would be free from diseases and calamities. This is the origin of the "New Year's Eve" festival. "New Year's Eve" in ancient times there are many other names, such as in addition to the night, in addition to the year, in addition to the year, in addition to the big, big end and so on. The name of the festival, though many, is always the meaning of sending the old to welcome the new, and getting rid of diseases and disasters.)

The first day of the first month of the lunar calendar: the Spring Festival

(is the first year of the lunar calendar, commonly known as the "big year. The origin of the Spring Festival has a history of about four thousand years in China. It is one of the most lively and grandest traditional festivals in China. Ancient Spring Festival, refers to the twenty-four solar terms in the lunar calendar, "spring" season, after the North and South Dynasties will be the Spring Festival at the end of the year, and refers to the entire spring, when the earth back to spring, everything is renewed, people will take it as the beginning of a new year. In the early years of the Republic of China after the Xinhai Revolution, the first day of the first month of the year was designated as the Spring Festival after the lunar calendar was changed to the Gregorian [solar] calendar. It was not until September 27, 1949, that the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference officially designated the first day of the first month of the new year as the Spring Festival, and many people still call the Spring Festival the Chinese New Year).

New Year:

(Everyone often refers to the Spring Festival as "New Year", but the original meaning of "New Year" is not the same as today's. It is said that in the very ancient times, the word "New Year" was used to refer to a period of time in which the Chinese people had to live in a very different way. It is said that in ancient times, there was the most vicious beast in the world called "Nian". It grew bigger than a camel. It ran faster than the wind and roared louder than thunder. When it came out, it ate people and hurt animals, and people's lives were seriously threatened. In order to punish the "year", the gods locked it into the mountains, only allowed it to come out once a year. People in the long-term practice, found that the "year" has "three fears" - afraid of red color, afraid of loud noise, afraid of fire. So, one year, on the night of the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, people put red paper on the door, and constantly beat the gongs and drums, firecrackers, and light up the house all night long. "Year" came at night to see, bright lights in every house; listen, everywhere the sound of firecrackers, scared it did not dare to enter the village. During the day, it sneaked down the mountain, see still red on the door of every house, everywhere thud, scared it scared, turned around and ran back. Since then, the "year" has not dared to come back, it is said to starve to death in the mountains and old forests. Later on, people turned the prevention of "Nian" and "Nianxuan" into a peaceful and stable New Year. There is no more "Nian", but the custom of celebrating the New Year still remains. (Bright red spring couplets, brilliant lights, crisp firecrackers, loud gongs and drums, every year.)

Customs of the Spring Festival

Sweeping the dust--Folk proverb says: on the 24th day of the Lunar New Year, dust and sweep the house". The north is called sweeping the house, the south is called dusting. Indoor and outdoor, room after room, thoroughly cleaned, clothes and utensils, scrubbed, clean to welcome the New Year.

Door painting - according to the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" said: Tang Taizong Li Shimin was sick, often heard the sound of ghosts crying and howling in his dreams, so that the night does not sleep. At this time, the general Qin Shubao, Yuchigong two volunteers, fully clothed to stand on both sides of the palace door, the results of the palace is really safe and sound, Li Shimin that the two generals are too hard, the heart of the heart, and then ordered the painter will be the two of them, the image of the mighty painted in the palace door, known as the "door god". East Han Cai Yong, "Dictatorship" records, the Han Dynasty folk have been posted on the door "Shentan", "Yubi" idol, to the Song Dynasty evolved into woodblock prints. Later, the folk competed with each other to follow suit, and after several evolutions, formed their own unique style, which is now the New Year's Paintings. China's earliest surviving New Year's paintings are the Song version of the "Sui Dynasty Myrtle Presented to the Kingdom of the Fangcheng Tu".

Chinese New Year scrolls evolved from the "peach stalks" of the Warring States period more than 2,000 years ago. According to the Huainanzi, peach symbols (i.e., peach stalks) were carved from peach wood. It was engraved with the incantation to extinguish blessings, and was changed once a year. When Emperor Meng Chang of Shu had a whim during the Spring Festival in the Five Dynasties, he had the peach tree sliced, and he wrote a couplet on it with his pen: "New Year's Day is a blessing for the rest of the year, and the festive season is an everlasting one". This is the earliest Spring Festival couplet in China. As for the official birth of the name of Spring Festival couplets, it was in the Ming Dynasty. Ming Dynasty founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang built the capital of Jinling, had in the new year's eve decree: "public officials and the common people's families, must write a pair of spring couplets to decorate the new year". Later, the spring couplets were popularized and are still used in every household during the New Year.

Mid-Autumn Festival Customs

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated from the 13th to the 15th of August, and is commonly called the August Festival. Markets are bustling with fruit stalls and rabbit stalls. Fifteen full moon set the moonlight horse in the court, for fruits and vegetables, mooncakes, beans branches, chickweed, radish, lotus root, watermelon and other products, only for the moon when the men do not bow to worship, the proverb: "men do not pay homage to the moon, women do not worship the stove". After the moon offering, family members sit together, drink wine and enjoy the moon, which is called the "Reunion Festival". The mooncake will be cut into pieces and eaten according to the number of people, which is called "reunion cake".

Old Beijing, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a three-day vacation. The students did not attend classes from the 13th to the 15th of the month. The so-called "mud rabbit stall" is to sell the rabbit. In the first ten years, the Beijing Mid-Autumn Festival still have rabbit masters for sale. Now it is rare. It seems to have been seen only at the Spring Festival temple fair. The Mid-Autumn Festival is about the rabbit in the moon. The rabbit is made of clay, rabbit head and body, wearing armor, inserted back flag, face paste gold clay, body painting, or sitting or standing, or pounding pestle or riding the beast, put up two big ears, but also playful and harmonic. There is a song as evidence "do not mention the old debt of ten thousand sorrows deleted, forget the time from the heart of leisure. When I glanced at it, I was suddenly surprised that the festival was approaching, and the streets were full of rabbits. The newest addition to the list is a rabbit, which is a great symbol of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and it's a great symbol of the spirit of the festival," he said.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, which coincides with the listing of autumn fruits, is particularly rich. Chunming Chifeng Zhi" in the "Mid-Autumn Festival, the market all over the fruit stalls, Yar pear (sic), sand fruit, white pear, pear, apple, begonias, plums, jujube, grapes, late peach, and with branches of beans, fruit roots, watermelon." In the past, the fruit market was in the east of Qianmen, and the lights were as bright as day on August 13th and 4th. And there were yelling: "Today is how many? Thirteen or four to, you do not buy me this sand fruit apple smell of fruit to, hey! Two hundred forty to" Now, these autumn fruits can be bought on the street. And compared to this year's fruit more and cheaper, it is from the monkey into the most beautiful moment of man. The downside is that radishes are a bit expensive, at the same price as apples. Inevitably, some older people decried the unjustified price. It is also worth mentioning that the beans, which were not common on the past Mid-Autumn Festival, were actually cooked in a cauldron in front of the mooncake stand at the Beitaipingzhuang sub-food store this year, and they were indeed beans with branches.

From the custom, and the past mid-autumn close to the gift-giving. "Mid-Autumn Festival, we send each other gifts ......, reward slaves and servants money, shopkeepers put tent post, every section so." Beijing these two years seems to rise again mid-autumn gift-giving big action. Before the festival, get two cars full of moon cakes and fruits, sent from house to house. Of course, the families and households here refer to business customers. Gift giving, naturally, is to contact feelings, settle money to business. Two years ago when I did this, I thought, now in the end to worship the rabbit master there. I'm afraid this year this trend is even more prevalent.

Now pay attention to the Cantonese moon cake, the past "Mid-Autumn Festival moon cake before the door to the beauty of the Zhimei Zhai for the first in Kyoto, it is not enough to eat at the beginning. For the moon moon cake is larger than a foot, painted on the shape of the moon palace toad rabbit, there are sacrifices and eaters, there are left until New Year's Eve and eaters, called the reunion cake. Can put half a year, certainly not a Cantonese moon cake. Mooncakes from the folk rituals, the same, Beijing people often eat dim sum if you seek to trace the roots of 70%, 80% are also from the folk rituals or religious offerings. In terms of production techniques, deep-frying, candied fruit and baking are the best preservative measures. Even the dumplings, the food after the Spring Festival offerings.

In fact, not only food is this way, extend this line of thought to extend, the birth of art (prudent people here will use the concept of certain art categories) as inseparable from the folk rituals. I remember when I went to school had an interest in this issue, look up some of the archaeological data in Henan and Shandong, and still can stimulate their minds is a jade axe unearthed in Rizhao, Shandong, of course, the real jade axe not have the chance to see, but alone on the picture has been enough to let a person surprised. The axe is so thin that it can pass through the light and a delicate kui pattern on it is difficult for people to simply use the word "vivid" to describe it, and in the era of stone axes, what does its existence mean?

Instead of saying that the jade axe is an axe, it is better to call it a language, describing the difficult to cut and smash the person with the heavenly dialogue. Or call it an elf, it is a spirit of the spirit of the abandonment of utilitarian trade-offs. It is through it that art emerges. What's more, it's how the talent sheds itself completely and becomes a human being.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is so good, so good that it once again makes me think about these questions that I haven't thought about for a long time. Of course, the festival is originally a festival of the spirit of the people, and at this time occasionally notice the difference between the moon cake and pancakes, it is not surprising. You see, isn't that what people do. To do their own food, in order to fill the stomach without a serious. Buns never change for hundreds of years, but if you add a little spiritual pursuit, you will be able to renovate.

It seems that pastries, works of art, and many other things are really like this.

Ancient customs

Ancient customs

According to the eighth volume of the Tokyo Monhualu (preface to the 147th year of the reign of Tokyo Monhualu), the markets of the Song dynasty were filled with a festive atmosphere a few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Stores sold new wines and redecorated the colorful buildings in front of their doors. People competed to drink new pomegranates, pears, chestnuts, grapes, and tangerines. At night, people compete to go up to the restaurant to enjoy the moon, silk and bamboo pipes and pipes. Children in the alleys played all night, and the night market was crowded with people and horses until dawn. Wu Zimu (lived around 1270), "Mengliang Records," Volume 4, also records that the Southern Song Dynasty families arranged family banquets and reunions with their children on this day to honor the festivities. Even poor families in the alleys pawned their clothes to buy wine to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Jin Yingzhi's New Drunkard's Record, Volume 4, recorded the custom of moon worship: "The moon worship in the capital was different from that in other counties. People from all over the city, regardless of their wealth, could walk on their own up to twelve or thirteen, all dressed as adults. They all climbed up the stairs or burned incense in the courtyard to worship the moon, each with his own expectations. The men would like to walk to the Toad Palace and climb up to the immortal laurel ....... The female wishes to look like Chang'e and be as round as the clean moon."

In addition to moon worship, there is also the custom of viewing lanterns. Zhou Mi's (1232-1308) Old Wulin Records, Volume 3, records that on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival in Hangzhou, "the lanterns and candles were brilliant, and were stopped after the night". Zhejiang also released a kind of sheepskin lanterns "a little red" on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the river was covered with hundreds of thousands of lanterns, like stars in the sky, which was very eye-catching. It is said that the water lanterns are to please the river god like, not purely for the sake of ornamental.

There was another special mid-autumn festival in Hangzhou during the Song Dynasty, the Qiantang Tide. Because the topography of the mouth of the Qiantang River is similar to a funnel, whenever the tide arrives, by the gradual narrowing of the terrain, the waves will be overlapped and piled up into a wall of water, the sound is extremely spectacular. When Su Dongpo was in Hangzhou, he wrote a poem called "Watching the Tide on the Night of the Mid-Autumn Festival," which describes the large number of people watching the tide and the momentum of the surging tides:

The Jade Rabbit is very round, and the frosty winds have already made it cold in September.

The message is to keep the door unlocked, and to watch the tide in the moonlight.

There are many people who are afraid of me, just like the old boy in the floating river.

If you want to know how high the tide is, the mountains are in the waves.

Another passage in The Old Story of Wulin describes the tidal wave's powerful momentum that shakes heaven and earth in a more specific way: "Fang its far out of the sea door, just like a silver thread, and then gradually approaching, it is the Jade City Snow Mountain, the sky comes. The tidal wave was as loud as thunder, shocking and shooting, swallowing the sky and the sun, and the momentum was extremely majestic. Until today, the tide of Qiantang is still the most distinctive sightseeing spot in Zhejiang Province during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Yuan Dynasty, though a foreigner, was y Sinicized. Most of the festival customs were inherited from the old Han Chinese system. During the Ming Dynasty, the customs of moonlight viewing, moon worship and eating mooncakes flourished.

Tian Rucheng's (lived around 1540) "West Lake Excursions" (Xichao Joy) records that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Ming people gave mooncakes to each other, taking the round shape of mooncakes as a symbol of "reunion". At night, they held moonlight feasts or brought food and wine to the lakeside to enjoy the festival. Liu Dong and Yu Yizheng's A Brief View of the Imperial Capital (1635), Volume 2, describes in detail the offerings for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival: mooncakes had to be round, and fruits and melons had to be cut into lotus-like petals. Moonlight paper is sold in the market, with the moon shining in the direction of the Bodhisattva, and the moon wheel of the Temple of Gui underneath, with a rabbit pounding medicine in the middle of it. The moonlight paper is burned after the moon festival, and the fruitcakes offered are distributed to each member of the family. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also a festival of reunion, so even if a woman has returned to her husband's family, she is sure to return on this day.

As for the Moon Festival of the Ming people, Zhang Dai (1597-1671?), a famous poet and writer, wrote about it. With his skillful writing, he made the following extremely elegant account for us. Taoan Mengyi, Volume 5, "Mid-Autumn Night at Huqiu":

Huqiu, halfway through August, the natives, the displaced residents, the scholar, the dependents, the female musicians, the voice of kisaeng, the famous prostitutes in the song, the playgirls, the folk young women, the good women, the pups, the child molesters, and the young men of entertainment and vice, the Qingkei, the helpers, the servants, and the people of the empty walks, are all gathered in one place. From the Shenggong Terrace, the Thousand People Stone, the Crane Stream, the Sword Pond, the Shen Wending Ancestral Hall, down to the Sword Trial Stone and the one or two mountain gates, all of them were seated on felt mats and looked up at the place as if wild geese were falling down on the Pingsha and the Xiajiang River. The drums and cymbals were gradually resting, and the silk pipes were flourishing, mixed with singing. All of them were "Jinfan open Chenghu ten thousand hectares" with the same big song, squatting and gongs and silk bamboo meat sound, do not recognize the beat brake. Deeper, people are gradually dispersed, the scholar's family members are off the boat water play, the seat levy song, everyone dedication skills north and south of the miscellaneous, orchestral playing, the listener Fang Fang discern the words and phrases, Algae Jen with it. The second drum people quiet, all screen strings, hole Xiao a wisp, mournful clear sheep, and meat eye guide, still three or four, iterative and more. Three drums, the moon is lonely and clean, not mixed mosquitoes and gadflies. A husband on stage, sitting high on the stone, not xiao not shoot, sound out like silk, cracking and penetrating the clouds, string degree Yang, a word a moment, the listener to find into the mustard, blood for the withered, do not dare to hit the knuckles, but nodding. However, at this time, Yan than those who sit, there are still a hundred or ten people do not. If you are not a Suzhou, how can you discuss the knowledge.

Late Ming literati interest in life, from this "Tiger House in the autumn night" or can be glimpsed.

Ming people worshipped the moon with the "moonlight paper", to the Qing Dynasty, changed its name to "moonlight horse". Fucha Dun Chong's "Yanjing Yearly Records" (1906). It is recorded that: "The Moonlight Horse is made of paper, with the star ruler of Taiyin painted on the top, like a Bodhisattva statue, and the Moon Palace and the rabbit pounding medicine painted on the bottom. A man stands and holds a pestle and mortar, and it is exquisitely colored in gold and blue, and there are many sellers in the marketplace. Longer seven, eight feet, short two, three feet, the top of the two flags, for red and green, fence or yellow, to the moon and offer. Burning incense to perform rituals, after the sacrifice and a thousand sheets, Yuanbao, etc., and burned".

Qing also circulated a saying: "men do not worship the moon, women do not run away. So moon worship became a women's monopoly, the housewife was busy with moon worship, and the children did not worry about having nothing to do. A few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, a kind of "rabbit" is sold in the market, which is specially designed for children to worship the moon. The origin of the "Rabbit" was around the end of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty's Jikun (who lived around 1636) wrote in his "Remainder of the Flower King's Pavilion": "During the Mid-Autumn Festival in Beijing, many rabbits were rolled in clay and dressed in human-like clothes, and children would worship them. During the Qing Dynasty, the rabbit's function was changed from a moon festival to a Mid-Autumn Festival toy for children. The production is also becoming more and more sophisticated, there are dressed up as a military general wearing armor, clad in ji robe, there are also back inserted paper flag or umbrella, or sitting or standing. Sitting there are unicorns, tigers and leopards and so on. There are also dressed as a rabbit head and body of the vendors, or shaving master, or sewing shoes, selling blunt, tea, to name a few.

Customs in different places

Customs in different places

[Fujian Province]

Women in Pucheng County walk across the Nanpu Bridge to eat for longevity. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival in Jianning, it is customary to hang lamps as a good omen to seek children from the Moon Palace. Shanghang County Mid-Autumn Festival, the children more in the moon worship please moon aunt. The method is to use a bamboo basket as a substitute for the Moon Aunt, and if a god descends, the bamboo basket will shake on its own, divining good and bad fortune by the number of times it shakes. When Longyan people eat mooncakes, parents will control a round cake with a diameter of two or three inches in the center for the elders to eat, which means that secret things should not be known to the younger generation. This custom comes from the legend that the mooncake hides a message against the Yuan and kills the Tartars. Before paying respect to the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival in Kinmen, one has to pay respect to the God of Heaven. The red color of the mooncake is made into a red peach, called the "God of Heaven". The moon worship red is made in the shape of pigs and sheep, and the number must be nine pigs and sixteen sheep.

[Guangdong Province]

The custom of eating taro at the Mid-Autumn Festival is said to commemorate the killing of the Tartars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. After killing the Tartars at the Mid-Autumn Festival, their heads were sacrificed to the moon, which was later replaced by taro. To this day, Cantonese people still call peeling taro "peeling ghost skin".

[Shandong Province]

Pu Qingyun County farmers offer sacrifices to the god of earth and grain on August 15, called "Qingmiao She". Zhucheng, Linyi and Jimo have to go to their graves to worship their ancestors in addition to the moon festival. Landowners in Guanxian, Laiyang, Guangrao and Yucheng also feasted their tenants on the Mid-Autumn Festival. Jimo Mid-Autumn Festival to eat a festival food called "wheat arrow".

[Shanxi Province]

Pu Lu'an Mid-Autumn Festival feast for son-in-law. Yongning Mid-Autumn Festival eve worship Taiyin Star Lord. Datong County moon cake called reunion cake, as big as two, three feet, Mid-Autumn Festival night and the custom of vigil. Shilou County in the mid-autumn festival worship city god.

[Hebei Province]

Pu Wanquan County, said the Mid-Autumn Festival for the "small New Year's Day", moonlight paper painted with Taiyin Xingjun and Guandi night reading the Spring and Autumn statue. Hetao County takes mid-autumn rain as bitter rain, and if it rains on the Mid-Autumn Festival, that year's greens must taste bad.

[Shaanxi Province]

Puxi Xiangxian Mid-Autumn Festival night men canoeing to the cliffs, women also arranged a good feast. Whether rich or poor, must eat watermelon. Please side mid-autumn drummers blowing along the door to ask for reward money, the same as the Dragon Boat Festival, New Year's Eve. Luochuan County, the Mid-Autumn Festival parents rate students with gifts for Mr. worship, lunch more than in the school meal.

[Jiangsu Province]

Pu Wuxi County Mid-Autumn Festival night burning incense. The incense burner is surrounded by gauze and silk, painted with a view of the moon palace. There are also incense buckets to line incense woven, above the insertion of paper tied Kuixing and colorful flags. The Shanghai people used osmanthus honey wine to accompany the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet.

[Jiangxi Province]

Pu Ji'an County in the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival, every village straw burns tiles. When the pots burn red, then put the vinegar in. This way there is a fragrance floating all over the village. Xincheng County, the Mid-Autumn Festival since the eleventh night from the hanging of straw lamps, drums and music to meet the welcome in the city streets, until the seventeenth day.

[Anhui Province]

Pu wuyuan mid-autumn festival, children to brick pile a hollow pagoda. Pagoda hanging to tent plaque and other decorations, and set a table in front of the pagoda, furnished with a variety of to honor the "pagoda god" of the apparatus. At night, lights and candles are lit inside and outside the pagoda, giving it a lovely glow. Jixi Mid-Autumn Cannon Playing. The Mid-Autumn Cannon is made of straw tied in the shape of a braid, soaked in moisture, and then picked up and struck against a rock to make a loud noise and the custom of swimming in a fire dragon. The fire dragon is a dragon made of straw, with incense sticks inserted into its body. The dragon is accompanied by a team of gongs and drums, and is sent to the river after traveling through the villages.

[Hubei Province]

Puzhou Mid-Autumn Festival is a time to fight with insects.

[Sichuan Province]

Pu Jiading County Mid-Autumn Festival sacrifices to the land god, play miscellaneous dramas, vocal music, cultural relics, known as the "look at the meeting". In addition to eating mooncakes, Sichuanese people also beat poi, kill ducks, eat hemp cakes, honey cakes and so on during the Mid-Autumn Festival. In some places, they also light orange lanterns. The oranges are hollowed out, lit with candles, and hung at the door to celebrate. There are also children who stick incense all over the pomelo and dance along the street, which is called "Dancing Meteor Incense Ball".

Pu "Liyuan County Records" also recorded that the Mid-Autumn Festival to eat taro, can cure scabies. Guangdong Mid-Autumn Festival also has the custom of children carrying lamps. The material of the lamp has red pomelo skin carved pomelo lamp, vegetative jasmine knot lamp, bright lights with bursts of flowers and fruits fragrance, make people love. Dongguan young unmarried people also burn incense and candles under the moon, begging the moon for its matchmaking. Xiapu has a mid-autumn trailing stone custom. Trailing stone is Qi Jiguang invented, to stone tied to the rope, dragged along the street, bluffing, used to fear of giggling enemy troops.

Every year on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, just after the Spring Festival, ushered in the traditional Chinese festival - the Lantern Festival.

The first month of the lunar calendar is the first month of the year, and the ancients called the night "night", so the first month of the fifteenth for the Lantern Festival. The 15th day of the first month is the first full moon of the year, but also the beginning of the year, the night of the earth back to spring, people celebrate this, but also to celebrate the continuation of the New Year. The Lantern Festival is also known as the "Festival of the New Year".

According to Chinese folk tradition, on this day the moon is high in the night, people have to point up ten thousand colored lanterns, to show the celebration. Go out and enjoy the moon, light up the lanterns and set off the fireworks, guess the lantern riddles, *** eat the Lantern Festival, family reunions, celebrating the festival together, and have a good time.

The Lantern Festival is also known as the Festival of Lights, Lantern Lantern custom from the Han Dynasty, to the Tang Dynasty, more prosperous activities to enjoy the lights, the palace, hanging lights everywhere on the street, but also to establish a tall lamp wheel, lamp building and lamp tree, the Tang Dynasty poet Lu Zhaolian was in the "fifteenth night to watch the lights" in this way to describe the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival, "the Han suspected that the stars fall, according to the building seems to be hanging moon.

The Song Dynasty attached more importance to the Lantern Festival, more lively lantern-appreciation activities, lantern-appreciation activities to be carried out for five days, the style of the lamp is also more abundant. Ming Dynasty to 10 days of continuous lantern viewing, which is China's longest lantern festival. Although the Qing Dynasty lantern-viewing activities only 3 days, but the lantern-viewing activities on a large scale, unprecedented, in addition to burning lights, but also fireworks to help.

"Guess the lantern riddles", also called "playing lantern riddles", is an activity added after the Lantern Festival, appeared in the Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the capital city of Lin'an made riddles every Lantern Festival, and there were a lot of people guessing riddles. At the beginning of the riddles were written on strips of paper and pasted on colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because the riddles can inspire wisdom and interest, so the process of circulation is very popular among all social classes.

The folk custom of eating Lantern Festival. Lanterns are made of glutinous rice, either solid or with filling. The fillings include bean paste, sugar, hawthorn, and various kinds of fruits, etc. They can be boiled, fried, steamed, or deep-fried when eaten. At first, people called this food "floating rounds", and later called "soup dumplings" or "soup dumplings", the names "reunion

Some places of the Lantern Festival and the custom of "walking a hundred diseases", also known as "baked hundred diseases" "scattered hundred diseases", the participants are mostly women, they walk in pairs or walk along the wall, or across the bridge, walking in the countryside, or in the countryside, or across the bridge, walking in the countryside, or across the bridge, walking in the countryside, or in the countryside, or in the countryside, or in the countryside. or cross the bridge and walk in the countryside, the purpose is to drive away diseases and disasters.

With the passage of time, more and more activities of the Lantern Festival, many local festivals have increased the number of dragon lanterns, lions, stilt walkers, rowing the dry boat twisting rice-planting songs, playing the drums and other traditional folk performances. The festival, which has been passed down for more than 2,000 years, is not only prevalent across the Taiwan Strait, but is also celebrated year after year in overseas Chinese settlements.

The Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, as early as 2000 years ago in the Western Han Dynasty, the Lantern Festival began in the Eastern Han Dynasty Mingdi period, Mingdi advocated Buddhism, heard that the Buddhist monks on the 15th day of the first month of the Buddha's relics, lighted lamps to honor the Buddha's practice, the night of the day on the order in the Imperial Palace and temples lighted lamps to honor the Buddha, so that the people of the scholarly class are hanging lamps. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. The festival has gone through a process of development from the palace to the folk, from the Central Plains to the whole country.

In the time of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, the 15th day of the first lunar month was designated as the Lantern Festival. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the festival of "Taiyi God" was held on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar. (Taiyi: the god who dominates everything in the universe). When Sima Qian created the "Taichu Calendar", the Lantern Festival was already recognized as a major festival.

Another theory is that the custom of burning lanterns at the Lantern Festival originated from the Taoist "Three Elements"; the 15th day of the first month is the Upper Elements Festival, the 15th day of the 7th month is the Middle Elements Festival, and the 15th day of the 10th month is the Lower Elements Festival. In charge of the upper, middle and lower three yuan respectively for the sky, earth, human three officials, the heavenly officials happy, so on the first yuan festival to light.

Festivals and Customs of the Lantern Festival