Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival in China, what are the customs in different places?

Mid-Autumn Festival, people's main activity is to enjoy the moon and eat moon cakes.

Moon Appreciation

On the Mid-Autumn Festival, there has been a custom of moon appreciation in China since ancient times, which was recorded in the Book of Rites that "the moon is set in the autumn sunset", i.e., the moon god is worshipped. By the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night is held to welcome the cold and moon sacrifice. A large incense burner was set up and seasonal fruits such as mooncakes, watermelons, apples, plums, grapes, etc. were placed on the table, among which mooncakes and watermelons were absolutely indispensable. The watermelon is also cut into lotus shapes.

During the Tang Dynasty, it was quite popular to enjoy and play with the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the Song Dynasty, the mid-autumn moon festival is even more prevalent, according to the "Tokyo Dreaming Records" records: "Mid-autumn night, the noble family decorative platforms and pavilions, the folk compete to occupy the restaurant to play the moon". Every this day, the capital of all the stores, restaurants are to redecorate the facade, the pagoda on the silk hanging color, selling fresh fruit and refined food, the night market is bustling, the people more than on the platform, some rich families in their own pavilions and pavilions to enjoy the moon, and set up food or arrange a feast, reunion of the children, *** with the moon to talk.

After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival Moon Festival customs remain the same, many places have formed a burning incense, tree Mid-Autumn Festival, point tower lamps, sky lanterns, walk the moon, dance fire dragon and other special customs.

Eating moon cakes

China's urban and rural masses over the Mid-Autumn Festival have the custom of eating moon cakes, as the saying goes: "August 15, the moon is round, Mid-Autumn Moon Festival mooncakes fragrant and sweet". Mooncake is initially used to worship the moon god's offerings, "mooncake" word, first seen in the Southern Song Dynasty Wu Zimu's "Dream Liang Records", at that time, it is just like the diamond flower cake like cake-shaped food. Later, people gradually combined the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival with mooncakes, a symbol of family reunion.

Mooncakes were initially made at home, and Yuan Mei of the Qing Dynasty recorded the practice of mooncakes in his "Sui Yuan Food List". In modern times, there are workshops specializing in the production of moon cakes, moon cake production more and more fine, the filling is exquisite, beautiful appearance, in the moon cake is also printed on the outside of a variety of exquisite patterns, such as "Chang'e Moon", "Galaxy Night Moon", "Three Pools of the Moon" and so on. To the moon's round omen people's reunion, to the cake of the round omen people's life, with moon cakes to send thoughts of their hometowns, homesickness, praying for a good harvest, happiness, have become the world's people's wish, moon cakes are also used as gifts to send friends and relatives, contact feelings.

The Tide

"The Jade Rabbit is very round, and the frosty winds of September are already cold. I would like to send a message to the heavy door to rest on the key, and leave the night tide to the moon to see." This is the Song Dynasty poet Su Shi wrote "August 15 tide" poem. In the ancient Zhejiang area, in addition to the Mid-Autumn Festival to enjoy the moon, tide watching can be said to be another Mid-Autumn Festival event. Mid-autumn tide-watching custom from a long time ago, as early as the Han Dynasty, Mei multiplied the "seven hair" in the big fugue has a fairly detailed account. After the Han Dynasty, the custom of watching the tide in mid-autumn was even more prevalent. Ming Zhu Tinghuan "Additions to the Old Story of Wulin" and Song Wu Zimu "Dream Liang Records" also have tide watching records. These two books described the tide of the spectacle, indicating that in the Song Dynasty, the mid-autumn tide reached an unprecedented peak.

Lighting

Mid-Autumn night, the sky is as clear as water, the moon is as bright as a mirror, it can be said that the beauty of the good times, however, the people did not meet, so there will be burning lamps to help the moon's custom. In Hunan and Guangdong have a tile stacked tower in the tower on the lights of the festival. In the south of the Yangtze River there is a system of lights boat custom. In recent times, the custom of burning lamps in the Mid-Autumn Festival is more prevalent. Zhou Yunjin and He Xiangfei said in their article "Leisurely Trying to Talk about Seasonal Events", "The most prevalent lanterns in Guangdong are made of bamboo strips ten days before the festival. The lanterns were made in the shape of fruits, birds, animals, fishes and worms, as well as the words 'Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival', on which colorful paper was pasted and painted in various colors. Mid-Autumn Festival night lights burning candles with a rope tied to a bamboo pole, high trees in the tile eaves or terrace, or with small lights built into characters or various shapes, hanging in the high places of the house, commonly known as the 'tree Mid-Autumn Festival' or 'vertical Mid-Autumn Festival'. The lights hung by the rich and noble families, up to several feet high, the family gathered under the lights to drink for fun, the ordinary people are erected a flagpole, two lanterns, but also to take their own fun. City full of lights is like a glazed world." It seems that from ancient times to the Mid-Autumn Festival lighting custom of its scale seems to be second only to the Lantern Festival.

Playing with rabbits

Recently, Jin Yi, Shen Yi Antelope's "courtesans talk about the past record," recounted a story told by a courtesan named Rong'er. At that time it was the Eight-Power Allied Forces into Beijing that year, the Empress Dowager Cixi fled from Kyoto, on the way to escape coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Empress in the midst of the panic, but also did not forget the old rituals and ancient customs, it was in the apartment of the Xinzhou Tribute to the ceremony held in the moon festival. The story says, "After dinner, according to the custom of the palace, the Empress to worship 'Taiyin Jun'. This is probably along the lines of the northeastern custom that 'men do not worship the rabbit, and women do not sacrifice to the stove,' but the 'Taiyin-kun' is sacrificed by the housewife of each family. In the southeast corner of the courtyard, an offering table was set up, and a sacred code (a piece of paper with a large rabbit pounding medicine in the moon palace) was brought out and inserted into the incense altar. The incense altar is a square bucket, and the bucket in northern Jin is not round, but square. Sometimes I hear people from northern Jinbei singing, "The moon is not as round as a square bucket, and it is not as sweet as the tenderness of the sister Ga. Visible, Jinbei bucket is all square. The bucket is full of new sorghum, the mouth of the bucket with yellow paper, four plates of fruit on the table, four plates of mooncakes, mooncakes stacked up to half a foot high. In addition, the center of a large wooden plate, placed in the diameter of a foot long round mooncake, which is dedicated to the sacrifice of the rabbit to do. There are also two branches of new hairy bean curd. Four bowls of clear tea were made by putting tea leaves in a bowl and rinsing it with cool water. In this way, by the Empress with the consort, Gege and all of us to perform the ritual, even if the ritual is complete. We are running away from the outside, very superstitious, lest there is a little bad etiquette, offended the gods and ghosts, give themselves a disaster. So when there was a chance to kowtow to the gods and ghosts, we all scrambled to participate, and none of us dared to pull back! Juanzi and I kowtowed instead." This story is about the rules of the Qing dynasty court to worship the moon rabbit, although it is in the midst of fleeing, incense altar had to be replaced by a square dipper in Jinbei, but from a psychological point of view, because in the difficult, so the god is more reverent and pious. From this story, the court of the Qing Dynasty is the moon in the Jade Rabbit called Taiyinjun. However, the folk is different, the people call it the Jade Rabbit, this kind of name is not as serious and solemn as that of Taiyinjun, but it seems to be more intimate. In the Beijing area of folklore, the Mid-Autumn Festival sacrifices rabbit master is not enough solemnity and games have more, although a little bit of God does not seem to respect, but it reflects the alienation of the folk god psychology. Since the Mid-Autumn Festival has been transformed into a folk festival by the rituals of the moon festival, the rituals have been diluted, and the nature of the tour is becoming more and more prominent, playing the rabbit custom, can be said to be a strong corroboration of this phenomenon.

Other Mid-Autumn Festival Customs

China's geography is vast, its population is large, and its customs are different, so the Mid-Autumn Festival's ways of celebrating it are also varied and have strong local characteristics.

In Pucheng, Fujian Province, women spend the Mid-Autumn Festival walking across the Nanpu Bridge for longevity. In Jianning, the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, hanging lamps as an auspicious omen to the Moon Palace to seek children. When people in Shanghang County celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, their children mostly invite the Moon Aunt when they worship the moon. When Longyan people eat mooncakes, parents will dig out round cakes two or three inches in diameter in the center for the elders to eat, meaning that secret things should not be known to the younger generation. This custom stems from the legend that the mooncake hides a message against the Yuan and kills the enemy. In Kinmen, before worshipping the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, one has to pay homage to the God of Heaven.

All over Chaoshan, Guangdong Province, there is a custom to worship the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, mainly women and children, and there is a proverb that says, "Men don't worship the full moon, women don't worship the stove". At night, when the moon rises, women will set up a case in the yard, on the balcony to pray in the air. Silver candles burning high, smoke, the table is also full of good fruit and cakes as a gift. There is also a local custom of eating taro in the Mid-Autumn Festival, Chaoshan has a proverb: "Hexi to the mouth, taro food to". In August, it is the taro harvest time, farmers are accustomed to taro to worship ancestors. This is certainly related to farming, but there is also a widely circulated folk legend: in 1279, the Mongolian nobles destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty and established the Yuan Dynasty, which ruled over the Han Chinese brutally. Ma Fa defended Chaozhou against the Yuan, and when the city was destroyed, the people were massacred. In order not to forget the suffering of the Hu people rule, the descendants of taro and "Hu head" resonance, and resembles a human head, in order to pay tribute to their ancestors, passed down through the generations, and still exists.

Mid-Autumn Night burning tower in some places is also very popular. Tower height ranging from 1-3 meters, mostly made of broken tiles, large towers are also made of bricks, accounting for about 1/4 of the tower height, and then stacked with tiles and into the top of the tower to leave a mouth, for the release of fuel. Mid-autumn night will be burning fire, fuel wood, bamboo, husk, etc., when the fire is strong, splash rosin powder, lead flame to help, extremely spectacular. Folk there is a race to burn tower regulations, who burned the whole seat of the tower red through the win, not as good as or in the burning process of the collapse of the negative, the winners by the host to send colorful flags, prizes or prizes. Rumor has it that the burning tower is also the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Han Chinese people against the brutal rulers, in the Mid-Autumn Uprising for the origin of the fire.

Jiangnan folk in the Mid-Autumn Festival people customs are also diverse. Nanjing people love to eat moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival, must eat Jinling famous dish osmanthus duck. "Cinnamon duck" in the cinnamon fragrance when the market, fat but not greasy, delicious flavor. After drinking, we must eat a small sweet taro, poured with osmanthus syrup, the beauty of it goes without saying. The name "osmanthus syrup" is taken from Qu Yuan's "Chu Rhetoric - Shao Shi Ming", "Aid the North closed and drink osmanthus syrup". Osmanthus syrup, a sugar osmanthus, is picked around mid-autumn and pickled with sugar and sour plums. The women of Jiangnan are so skillful that they transformed the aphorisms in the poem into delicacies on the table. In Nanjing, people enjoying the moon as a family are called "celebrating reunion", sitting and drinking together are called "full moon", and going out to the market is called "walking moon".

In the early Ming Dynasty, Nanjing had the Moon Watch Tower and the Moon Bridge, and in the Qing Dynasty, the Moon Tower was built under the Lion Rock, all for people to enjoy the moon, and the Moon Bridge was the most popular one. People in the bright moon hanging high, with the company of the moon tower, play the moon bridge, to **** see the jade rabbit for fun. "Play Moon Bridge" in the Fuzhi Temple Qinhuai River South, next to the bridge for the famous whore Ma Xianglan residence, this night, the scholar gathered at the bridge sheng xiao playing and singing, reminiscent of the cattle islets play the moon, poetry to the moon, so this bridge for the play moon bridge. After the death of the Ming Dynasty, gradually declining, the descendants have a poem to: "the wind flow of the South Qu has been smoke, left the west wind longboard bridge, but remember the jade sitting on the bridge, the moon relative to teach blowjob". Longboard Bridge, that is, the original play moon bridge. In recent years, Nanjing Fuzimiao has been repaired, restored some of the pavilions during the Ming and Qing dynasties, dredging the river, to be the Mid-Autumn Festival, you can come with a group of people to enjoy the fun of playing the moon here.

Wuxi County, Jiangsu Province, the Mid-Autumn Festival night to burn incense. The incense is surrounded by gauze and silk, painted with the scenery of the moon palace. There are also incense pipes made of threaded incense, which are inserted with a paper star and colorful flags. Shanghai Mid-Autumn Banquet with osmanthus honey wine.

Ji'an County, Jiangxi Province, in the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival, every village burns a tile pot with straw. When the tiles are burned red, then vinegar is put in. At this time there will be a fragrance floating all over the village. In Xincheng County, when the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated, the straw lanterns are hung from the 11th night of August until the 17th day of August.

Anhui province 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 tower, set up a variety of honor "tower god" apparatus. At night, inside and outside are lit with lights and candles. Jixi Mid-Autumn Festival Children's Mid-Autumn Cannon. The Mid-Autumn Cannon is made of straw tied into a braid, soaked in wet and then picked up to the stone to strike, making a loud noise and the custom of swimming fire dragon. The fire dragon is a dragon made of straw, with incense sticks inserted into its body. When the fire dragon swims, there are gongs and drums with the same team, and then sent to the river after traveling all over the village.

Sichuan province people over the Mid-Autumn Festival in addition to eating moon cakes, but also to play poi, kill ducks, eat hemp cake, honey cake. Some places also light orange lanterns and hang them at the door to celebrate. There are also children in the pomelo full of incense, dancing along the street, called "dance meteor incense ball. Jiading County, the Mid-Autumn Festival sacrifices to the land god, play miscellaneous dramas, vocal music, cultural relics, known as the "look at the meeting".

In the north, in Qingyun County, Shandong Province, farming families in the August 15 festival to the God of the Valley, known as "Qingmiao She". Zhucheng, Linyi and Jimo, in addition to sacrificing to the moon, but also have to go to the graves of their ancestors. Landlords in Guanxian, Laiyang, Guangrao and Yucheng also feasted their tenants at the Mid-Autumn Festival. In Jimo, a kind of food called "wheat arrow" is eaten on Mid-Autumn Festival. Lu'an, Shanxi Province, feasted their son-in-laws on the Mid-Autumn Festival. In Datong County, mooncakes are called "reunion cakes", and there is a custom of keeping vigil on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Wanquan County, Hebei Province, said the Mid-Autumn Festival is "a small new year's day", the moonlight paper is painted with Taiyin Xingjun and Guandi night reading spring and autumn statues. The people of Hetao County consider mid-autumn rain to be bitter rain, and if it rains on the Mid-Autumn Festival, the locals believe that the green vegetables must not taste good.

Xixiang County, Shaanxi Province, the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the men boarded a boat on the cliff, the women arranged a good feast. No matter how rich or poor, they must eat watermelon. Mid-autumn drummers blowing drums along the door to ask for reward money. Luochuan County, the Mid-Autumn Festival parents rate of students with gifts for Mr. worship festival, lunch more than in the school dinner.

Some places have also formed a lot of special mid-autumn customs. In addition to viewing the moon, moon worship and eating moon cakes, there are also Hong Kong's fire dragon dance, Anhui's piling up pagodas, Guangzhou's tree mid-autumn festival, Jinjiang's burning pagodas, Suzhou's Shihu to see the string of the moon, Dai's worship of the moon, Miao's moon jumping, Dong's stealing of the moon's vegetables, and Gaoshan's tokusatsu dance, among others.