Shanxi Mid-Autumn Festival customs playing mooncake sacrifice moon reunion dinner?

All over China in the lunar August 15 Mid-Autumn Festival, there are many different forms of customs, people can learn from the local customs, very interesting. So today's old calendar for you to introduce Shanxi region in the Mid-Autumn Festival, what are the customs, come to understand it.

Playing mooncakes Shanxi region generally called the Mid-Autumn Festival for the "August 15", is second only to the Spring Festival of the folk festival. Shanxi people over the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon festival is a long-standing folk custom, and the moon cake that is the moon festival is the most important offerings, but also the family to celebrate the holiday food, but also as a gift to friends and relatives. It is customary in rural areas to make the mooncakes themselves, which are called mooncakes. Whenever a festival comes, every family has to set up a pot and bake their own mooncakes.

Shanxi people with the Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes are divided into sacrificial mooncakes (also known as reunion mooncakes) and ordinary edible mooncakes, sacrificial mooncakes to pay attention to the four a catty, contains "four flat, symmetrical and harmonious" will. Northwest Jin festival of the moon with a set of cakes, from large to small, built up like a pagoda, the top of a peach-shaped moon cake, here to make the moon cake, and all the flour using sesame oil, appearing to be particularly crispy.

There is also a special kind of spherical mooncake in Fanchi County, Shanxi, which is a unique creation of local farmers. And other general farmers playing mooncakes, special attention to the production of some small mooncakes in the shape of a rabbit, is a special gift for small children. Taking the meaning of the jade rabbit in the moon, it expresses the blessing of adults to their children, hoping that they will be able to "toad palace laurel" in the future, and enter the civil service.

Moon-cake mold carved in the rural areas of Shanxi, the production of moon cakes in the wooden mold is the most rich in local characteristics, Shanxi people commonly referred to as "mooncake mold". The quality of the material, carved moon cake mold is a favorite treasure, many farmers are proud to have a few pieces of good mold. The mooncake molds are made of jujube wood, and depending on the size of the wood, different sizes of mooncakes are made, with a diameter of three to five inches for small ones and a foot for large ones, and engraved with floral motifs such as the Palace of Guanghan and the Jade Rabbit.

The mooncake, will be done in advance of the cake billet into the mold, hard compaction, and then face down with the force of the mooncake knocked out of the round mooncake concave and convex with all kinds of patterns, attracting people to love, and then after the baking of the final shape that is made. Shanxi mooncakes are mostly made of oil and flour, with fillings such as dates, walnuts, beans, persimmons, preserved fruits, brown sugar and other kinds of fillings. The shape of the mooncake is mainly round, but there are also gourd-shaped, peach-shaped or crescent-shaped mooncakes.

Sacrificing the moon on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, the family reunion, in the east of the compound set up a table of offerings, the upper set of moonlight horse (i.e., the moon god image), mooncakes, watermelon, beans, fruits, etc., the whole family looked up at a round moon, the main worshipper kowtowed in respect of, and recited the worship of the moon song: "August 15, the moon is round, the watermelon mooncakes to the gods, there are food and drink and wear, the family size are safe. " There are incense burners and candlesticks in the offerings, and the burners are lit with a kind of coiled incense called rue incense. Once the Jade Rabbit rises in the east and the moonlight shines on the offerings on the table, it means that the Moonlight Bodhisattva has accepted the sentiment, so the incense is burned and the paper is burned, and all are happy.

Girls moon worship is interesting, set up a separate picture of the moon, the heart silently praying for the Chang'e fairy blessing themselves with a better future. In the past, some places in Shanxi Province, "men do not worship the moon", probably because the moon is Yin; but in some places in southeast Jin Dynasty, there is a "women do not look at the moon" custom, the moon festival is carried out by all men.

Later these preoccupations are not so strict, all over the pass family men, women and children together to enjoy the moon, a feast, talk about the sky and the earth, to celebrate the harvest, to congratulate the reunion. Shanxi folk circulated "August 15 clouds cover the moon, the first month of the 15th snow hit the lamp" of the proverb, that "August 15 clouds cover the moon, the next year must be a good harvest," is a common belief.

After the moon worship. The whole family sat around together, *** enjoy the offerings, will be a large moon cake according to the number of people in the family cut pieces, each person a copy, if there are out of the people who have not returned, but also deliberately left a copy of the people who have not returned to be eaten when they return. Jinnan Mid-Autumn Festival night to worship the moon, after eating moon cakes, the countryside lads will have to play in the night whip, that is, playing horse whip, to sound big and crisp for the best.

Some places, it is also the night to point sulfur fire, called dragon fire. But also to the home-bred dog wearing bells, lead the dog east and west. When the moon has sunk. Adults have been sleeping, but also hear the door outside the streets and alleys ringing the sound of crisp whips and children's playfulness, when the bell, the whip bla bla bla, some other fun.

The moon festival items in addition to moon cakes, watermelon, grapes, beans. Watermelon to take the sound in the happy, to take the shape in the round, to take the flesh in the red, to take the child in the more, meaning that the whole family reunion, happy, red hot, more children and more blessings. Watermelon to be stored to the Mid-Autumn Festival, must be harvested at the time of careful operation, selecting half-ripe, thick-skinned, unharmed, deliberately preserved, designed for the moon festival. Folklore around Jinnan watermelon is the head of a beast, it is fierce and strong, every year on the night of August 15 always come out to hurt people, Jinnan people borrowed to eat watermelon (beast head) to relieve anger.

Grapes are a specialty of Jinzhong and Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, with a long history of ripening just before the mid-autumn festival. Grapes have long been a symbol of fertility and family prosperity in folklore with their sprawling branches and crystalline, rounded features, and sacrificing grapes to the moon is a long-standing custom passed down by Shanxi people.

The hairy beans are selected and cooked with tender yellow bean curd, golden in color and fragrant in taste, which is said to be the favorite food of rabbits, and the hairy beans sacrificed to the moon are specially prepared for the Jade Rabbit in the moon.

Many rural villages in northwestern Jin used to offer boiled corncobs, similar to the intention of the beans, but also the rabbit's favorite things. In addition, some apples, pears, persimmons and other seasonal fruits are offered at the moon festival. In some places in Jinzhong, watermelons are carved with various patterns in the flesh, and an oil lamp is placed in the center, and the light comes out from between the hollowed-out skin of the melon, which is soft and beautiful.

Reunion dinner in southeastern Jin Dong area, August 15 to invite the son-in-law to the door, set up wine reception. Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the reunion festival. Shanxi folk pay special attention to this moment of family reunion. People who go out generally have to go home on this day to celebrate the festival, and it is also customary to buy some high-grade moon cakes. Married girls avoid the Mid-Autumn Festival in her mother's home, to return to her in-laws and her husband to enjoy the moon. A new daughter-in-law must be invited by her son-in-law to return to her in-laws' home. The son-in-law calls the daughter-in-law to send mooncakes as a gift to the in-laws.

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