What are the traditional customs of the Mid-Yuan Festival

Midwinter Festival, is the name of Taoism, folk secular known as the half of the seventh month, the fourteenth day of the seventh month, the Festival of Ancestors, and Buddhism is known as the Bon Festival. Below I bring you the traditional customs of Zhongyuan Festival, I hope you like it!

1, ancestor worship

Folk believe that ancestors will return home to visit their children and grandchildren on the Day of the Middle Ages, so the need for ancestor worship this ancestor worship is to honor their ancestors and ancestors, "things dead as things alive" a reflection of traditional ethics. The harvesting of crops in the small fall season is also a good time to share the joy of the harvest with the ancestors. Meng Yuanlao "Tokyo Dreaming Records" said: "the day before the first day of the Yuan, that is, to buy practice leaves, enjoy the rituals when the desktop, and buy hemp grain nest, also tied to the foot of the table, which is to tell the ancestors the meaning of the autumn harvest."

2, fireworks

In the Menglanbian, there is an important activity, called "fireworks" "fireworks is the Buddhist so-called hell in the hungry ghosts, the purpose of this activity is to supersede the souls of the dead, for the lone wild ghosts The purpose of this event is to pray for the souls of the dead and to give food to the lonely ghosts. "Fireworks are performed at dusk or in the evening, and the event lasts for a long time, even into the early hours of the next morning. First, monks recite sutras and do the rituals, and finally, the master of the ceremony sprinkles rice and water around the area to give food to the ghosts.

3. Noodle Man

Yonghe County readers worship Kuixing on this day. Sheep herders in Changzi County slaughter sheep on the Mid-Yuan Festival to compete with the gods, which is rumored to increase sheep production. They also give meat to their relatives, and those who are poor and do not have sheep will steam noodles in the shape of sheep instead. In Yangcheng County, farmers make cats, tigers and grains out of wheat shavings and offer sacrifices in the fields, which is called "Hsingtian". In Mayi County, people use wheat flour to make children's shapes on the Mid-Yuan Festival, which are called "noodle men," and give them to the children of their relatives. In Xinxian County, farmers hang five-colored paper on the stalks of their fields on the Mid-Yuan Festival.

4, make a boat

Long Island fishermen to board Panicum made of small boats, on which a note "for the use of so-and-so", or for the drowning of the tablets, and then loaded with food, clothing, hats, shoes, socks and other paraphernalia, and then light candles, by the married man will be put in the boat into the sea. The boat is then lit with candles and put into the sea by a married man. In Zhanhua County, each family picks hemp and fresh grass to build a shed, called a "hemp house," and invites ancestors to worship in it. In Duling County, the Mid-Yuan Festival is known as the Pincer Festival, and every family eats a light meal.

5, burned paper

Sichuan Province, the customary ancestor worship in the Yuan burned paper. To be a stack of paper money, sealed into a small seal, written on the recipient's name and name, the number of seals received, the name of the person and time. Popular legend has it that on July 15, when the ghost gate is closed, all families have to "send children to the orphans". Chengdu area people with paper tie "flower plate", on the paper money and fruit offerings, end in the hand, but also in the house while walking and reading.

6, food

Jiashan County to rain on the Mid-Yuan Festival as a sign of a good rice harvest. Tonglu County people in the evening of the Mid-Yuan Festival gong spread rice in the wild, known as the "Shi food". East Zhejiang Bon, please 24 old ladies "go eight knot", while reciting scripture. Tiantai in the Yuan Festival to eat "dumplings cake", tube similar to spring rolls. There is also the custom of placing street lamps to six strong men as a group: one person to beat the gong, one person to play the bang, one person to carry the lantern, one person to spread salt and rice along the way, one person along the way to set up incense and candles (inserted in a piece of sweet potatoes or taro), one person along the way to set up a piece of bean curd and a rice ball (placed in a large leaf), about every hundred paces to set up a sacrificial offering.

Nowadays, the rituals of ancestor worship on the Mid-Yuan Festival have been simplified, and in most areas the rituals begin in the evening of the fifteenth or fourteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. The ancestor worship ceremony has also been simplified, gradually eliminating superstitious colors and retaining the form of sacrifice as a way of remembering and commemorating one's ancestors.