What does it mean to sacrifice the moon?

Sacrificing the moon is an important sacrifice in ancient times. The son of heaven set up an altar to worship the moon god every autumn equinox to show his gratitude for the harvest of heaven and earth. Offering sacrifices to the moon is an activity of offering sacrifices to the "Moon God" in some places in ancient China. The autumnal equinox in the twenty-four solar terms is an ancient "Moon Festival".

The origin of offering sacrifices to the moon:

Mid-Autumn Festival is a relic of ancient celestial worship-the custom of worshipping the moon. At the autumnal equinox, it is an ancient "Moon Festival". Sacrificing to the moon is a very old custom in China. In fact, it is a ritual activity of the ancients in some places in ancient China to "Moon God". Mid-Autumn Festival comes from the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. In traditional culture, the moon and the sun are the same, and these two alternate celestial bodies become the objects of ancestor worship. The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the ancient people's sacrifice to the moon, which is the legacy and derivative of China people's custom of offering sacrifices to the moon.

Mid-Autumn Festival is a synthesis of autumn seasonal customs, most of which have ancient origins. Mid-Autumn Festival is popular in Han Dynasty, which is a period of economic and cultural exchanges and integration between North and South, and cultural exchanges in different places spread together. According to written records, in the Han Dynasty, there were activities in the Central Plains to respect and support the elderly and give them coarse cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival or beginning of autumn.

There are also written records about Mid-Autumn Festival in Jin Dynasty, but it is not very common. Mid-Autumn Festival in Jin Dynasty was not very popular in the Central Plains of northern China. Mid-Autumn Festival became an officially recognized national festival, probably in the Tang Dynasty, when the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival was popular in northern China. The Book of Emperor Taizong recorded the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival has become a popular folk festival, and August 15th of the lunar calendar was officially designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival.