What is the Mid-Autumn Festival

What is the Mid-Autumn Festival

What is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China, it is one of the festivals that a lot of people are looking forward to, and it is popular from the Tang Dynasty, so follow me to see what is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and I hope that it can be helpful to you.

What is the Mid-Autumn Festival1

What is the Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival. Mid-Autumn Festival is also called August Festival, Moon Chasing Festival, Moon Worshiping Festival, Daughter's Festival, etc. Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Tang Dynasty, and was able to flourish in the Song Dynasty, until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival was an important festival on a par with the Spring Festival. Nowadays, Chinese culture has a far-reaching influence, and the Mid-Autumn Festival is also celebrated in East and Southeast Asia. The traditional customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival include enjoying the moon, making moon rituals, drinking osmanthus wine, and viewing osmanthus flowers, and have been passed down to the present day.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated in the eighth month of the lunar calendar, which is in the middle of the autumn season and is called "mid-autumn", and the fifteenth day of the month is also in the middle of the autumn season and the month of the year, so the day of the fifteenth day of the eighth month is called the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is mainly celebrated on the moon, which gives rise to the common names of "Moon Festival" and "Moon Festival". The moon at the Mid-Autumn Festival is full and big, and has a beautiful meaning of reunion, so the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the "reunion festival".

On May 20, 2006, the Mid-Autumn Festival was included in the list of the first intangible cultural heritage, and in 2008, the Mid-Autumn Festival was designated as a national holiday.

What is the predecessor of the Mid-Autumn Festival

Like other festivals, the Mid-Autumn Festival originated in the pre-Qin period, when people worshipped and sacrificed to the moon. According to available information, it can be known that the ancients would worship the moon on the day of the autumnal equinox, and it was not until the advent of the calendar that the Moon Festival was transferred to the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.

The Zhouli is the earliest surviving document that records the term Mid-Autumn Festival, which shows that the Moon Festival had evolved into a family-friendly festival like Mid-Autumn Festival by the Han Dynasty. Although there is a record of the Mid-Autumn Festival during the Wei, Jin, and North and South Dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival has not been widely popular in the Wei, Jin, and North and South Dynasties.

The Mid-Autumn Festival was able to become a unified national holiday, it should be in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, in the Book of the Tang Dynasty recorded how the people of the Tang Dynasty spent the Mid-Autumn Festival scene. The Tang Dynasty was an extremely romantic dynasty, and they combined all kinds of myths about the moon and the Mid-Autumn Festival to form a unique romantic literature, and even more so, they combined all kinds of Mid-Autumn Festival customs to make them more interesting.

The dynasty that officially established the Mid-Autumn Festival as the 15th day of the 8th month was the Song Dynasty, and small cakes close to mooncakes appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty. Meng Yuanlao's Tokyo Menghua Lu (东京梦华錄) detailed the scenes of the Mid-Autumn Festival during the Northern Song Dynasty. After this, the Mid-Autumn Festival had become one of the most important festivals in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and mooncakes had successfully made their way into all walks of life.

Moon watching, moon worship, eating mooncakes and so on, are the people's conventions and customs left behind. Why eat mooncakes and enjoy the moon on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival? First, it is the ancient custom left over from the Moon Festival, secondly, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a good time to enjoy the moon because of the scarcity of clouds and mist, and thirdly, it is related to the myths associated with the moon.

What are the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival

1, enjoy the moon

China since ancient times, there is a custom of enjoying the moon, the "Book of Rites" recorded in the "Autumn sunset," that is, to worship the moon. The moon is the god of the moon. To the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Night will be held to welcome the cold and moon sacrifice. A large incense burner was set up with mooncakes, watermelons, apples, plums, grapes and other seasonal fruits, of which mooncakes and watermelons were absolutely indispensable.

2, eat moon cakes

As the saying goes, "The moon is full on the 15th day of the 8th month, and the mooncakes are fragrant and sweet during the Mid-Autumn Festival". The mooncake is initially used to worship the moon god's sacrifice, "mooncake" word, the earliest in the Southern Song Dynasty Wu Zimu's "Meng Liang record", then, it is just like the diamond cake cake cake-shaped food. Later, people gradually combined the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival with mooncakes, a symbol of family reunion.

3. Moon Festival

Under the moon, the moon god statue is placed in the direction of the moon, red candles are lit high, the whole family worships the moon, and then the housewife cuts the mooncake for reunion. The person who cuts it counts in advance how many people in the whole family ****, at home, out of town, should be counted together, can not cut more or less, the size should be the same.

What is the Mid-Autumn Festival 2

Three major themes of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

First, the present moon once shone on the ancients: the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival

The initial embryonic form of the Mid-Autumn Festival can be traced back to the ancient people's worship of the natural phenomena of the heavens, especially the moon. The Book of Rites contains a large number of rituals, among which, during the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was a record of "sacrificing the sun on the altar and the moon on the kan".

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the emperor would send his ministers to sacrifice to the moon at the autumnal equinox. During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu An, the king of Huainan, and his disciples wrote a book called Huainanzi, which collected and processed a large number of myths related to the moon, including the stories of Chang'e running to the moon and Wu Gang lashing out at the laurel, which had a great influence on later generations.

During the Wei, Jin, and North-South Dynasties, metaphysics was prevalent, and people gradually wrote more and more poems about the moon. Tao Yuanming once wrote: "In the morning, I take care of the filth, and return with the moon and the hoe." Shen Huowen, a famous literati in the Southern Dynasty, wrote a poem entitled "A Song of the Moon by Wang Zhongcheng Siyuan", which is a relatively early poem about the moon. However, at that time, people worshipped the bright moon and expressed their feelings for the moon not only on August 15, the "mid-autumn" in the poem only refers to the middle stage of autumn, similar to the "mid-autumn", and does not refer to the festival, and the day of August 15 is not a festival either. The strongest evidence is the Tang Dynasty writer Ouyang Zhan's Playing with the Moon, which states:

The month of play, winter is frosty and cold, and summer is hot and steamy, with clouds covering the moon, and frost invading the people, and hiding and invading, and all the damage is done to the play. Autumn in the time, after the summer first winter; August in the fall, the beginning of the season, the end of the Meng; fifteen in the night, and the middle of the month. The first is the first time in the history of the world that we have seen the world's most famous movie, and the second is the first time in the history of the world that we have seen the world's most famous movie.

According to Ouyang Zhan's meaning, people liked to enjoy the moon on the 15th of August because it was too hot in summer and too cold in winter, and because the moon was full and cool on the 15th of August, it was the most suitable day to enjoy the moon. It can be seen that the reason why people enjoyed the moon on August 15 at that time was not because it was a festival, but because the climate was suitable.

The Tang Dynasty was a paradise of poetry, with many poems about the moon, including those by Li Bai and Bai Juyi. So much so that in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the moon has become a must-do on the 15th of August. In the Book of the Tang Dynasty, Taizong records the phrase "Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of the 8th month", and it is because of this phrase that many people believe that the Mid-Autumn Festival originated in the Tang Dynasty. If we look at the custom of "enjoying the moon" during the Mid-Autumn Festival, we can think that the Mid-Autumn Festival originated in the Tang Dynasty. However, the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Tang Dynasty was only a seasonal event, not a festival. The real Mid-Autumn Festival as a holiday, or in the Song Dynasty period.

During the Song Dynasty, culture and the commodity economy further developed, the custom of enjoying the moon into more entertainment and market elements, that is to say, in the Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival is no longer the patent of the scholarly class, but also gradually formed the custom of the folk, and injected into this day, such as "reunion" and other festive themes. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the court formally promulgated the order of leave Ning, Mid-Autumn Festival day officials can take a day off. Since then, the Mid-Autumn Festival has officially become a festival.

Second, if the moon is full, the moon is long round: the Northern Song Mid-Autumn Festival "reunion" theme

Tang Dynasty, the pad, Mid-Autumn Festival full moon night, the literati, scholarly men began to enjoy the moon on this day, poetry and feelings. In the Song Dynasty, this tradition was more widely spread. Not only Su Shi's "Song of Water", but also the folk have the custom of mid-autumn moon viewing, frolicking, and holding torches.

Although moon watching is good, but not every year can enjoy the moon, such as encountering extreme weather, no moon to enjoy, not a spoilsport? So on this day, people began to invite friends to get together, if there is no moon, at least the family can get together to drink. Take the scholar Yanshu as an example. Yanshu was a famous literary scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty, and he and Wang Junyu were close friends, and every Mid-Autumn Festival, they would enjoy the moon together. One year, because of the mid-autumn, because the sky is cloudy, there is no moon to enjoy, Yanshu is very upset, Wang Junyu will write poems to help the fun, and the women and children of the two families are called together, the two families drink to the next day dawn.

Ouyang Xiu, a great writer of the Song Dynasty, also had the habit of inviting friends to gather at the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the eighth year of the Qingli period, Ouyang Xiu was an official in Yangzhou, and before the Mid-Autumn Festival, he asked his family to prepare food for the Mid-Autumn Festival early, and he invited his friends, such as Mei Yaochen, to come and get together.

Initially, most literati in the Song Dynasty invited their friends and colleagues to gather on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, but the custom spread to the people and became more secular. Folk people every mid-autumn, began to invite their parents and brothers, relatives get together, happy, and a lot more life. In farming society, the mid-autumn is the season of harvest, the bottom of the people will be the autumn harvest of crops, preserves, fruits and melons, etc. on the table, the family *** with the taste, not a lot of fun.

At this time, there is a clever daughter-in-law, will do some cakes and pastries. Su Shi wrote in "Farewell to Lianshou": "small cakes like chewing the moon, there are crispy and syrup." The word "small cakes" is mentioned here, and the word "mooncake" is mentioned for the first time in the Song Dynasty's "The Old Story of Wulin". Since the story of Chang'e running to the moon, as recorded in the Huainanzi, also took place on a full-moon night, people made motifs of Chang'e, the Jade Rabbit, and osmanthus trees (osmanthus flowers) on the surface of the mooncakes, which enhanced the folklore of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Because the moon and the moon have the same shape, they both have the meaning of "reunion".

This custom of getting together at Mid-Autumn Festival has been developed in the folklore, and the moon, osmanthus flowers, mooncakes, fruits, wine, etc. have become common folk elements of Mid-Autumn Festival, and if it is in the south of the Yangtze River or the coastal area, crabs are a must-have delicacy at Mid-Autumn Festival. Family members get together and have food to eat, children are more lively, adults are laughing, the reunion is very strong.

Mid-Autumn Festival from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, its theme from the "moon" evolved into "reunion", the main reason can be summarized as three points:

First, the Tang Dynasty, although the culture is flourishing, but most of the literati have a passive avoidance of the world's thoughts, so the The cultural atmosphere of the Mid-Autumn Festival is mostly full of loneliness and isolation. The Song Dynasty, with its national policy of "emphasizing literature over arms", had a Fan Zhongyan-style "family and country sentiment", and the mentality of the Song literati was relatively more positive, and the cool mood of the Mid-Autumn Festival was no longer adapted to the general environment of the Song literati, Friends, family members to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival "reunion" theme, there is a certain role in promoting.

Second, the Song dynasty folk culture developed faster, and the Mid-Autumn Festival was gradually secularized. Song Dynasty literati diversified the entertainment of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the folk gradually followed suit and became popular. The evolution of folk festival customs is an important impetus for the change of the festival theme of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Third, the agricultural civilization of the "Mid-Autumn Festival" seasonal influence, the Mid-Autumn Festival in the folk along with agricultural products, fruits, moon cakes and other cultures in a timely manner, to promote the Mid-Autumn Festival, "reunion" of the beautiful symbolism.

Therefore, it can be summarized that the Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Tang Dynasty, initially to "enjoy the moon" as the theme, through the development of the times, to the Northern Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival added the "reunion" theme of the festival.

Three, raise your head to look at the moon, head down to think of your hometown: the Southern Song Mid-Autumn Festival "reunion" theme

If we say that in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival both "moon" and "reunion", the Mid-Autumn Festival will be the first time in the history of the festival, and it is the first time in the history of the festival. If the Northern Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival had both the theme of "enjoying the moon" and "reunion", the Southern Song Dynasty added the theme of "homesickness" due to the special historical background and culture.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, the festive atmosphere of the Mid-Autumn Festival was relatively relaxed among the scholarly class and the common people at the bottom, and most of the literati liked to enjoy the moonlight and reunion with their friends, and the people were also happy to have a family reunion at this time. There are many descriptions of mid-autumn family reunions in All Song Poems. For example, Kong Pingzhong in the Xining four years of the Mid-Autumn Festival wrote:

The moon is full of light is especially good, the autumn Yin gas is more clear, often years of bitter rain, this night is only clear. The back of the pavilion Luo nieces and nephews, the front hall together brothers. The first time I saw this was when I was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, and the second time I saw it.

But in the Southern Song Dynasty, due to political reasons, especially at the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty experienced the Jingkang shame, the Southern Song Dynasty's survivors moved south several times. Whenever the Mid-Autumn Festival, the atmosphere is more depressing, the scholars began to miss their loved ones in the far north and their homeland, because they can not "reunion", so the formation of "homesickness" feelings. At this time, the `Mid-Autumn Festival, added to the relatives, the motherland mountains and rivers of the strong thoughts.

Among them, Liu Xueji, a Southern Song official, wrote in the Ankang Mid-Autumn Festival Book:

Last year, we drank wine with Zhu ZiYi, and the moon fell in the sky, but we did not go back. This year, the wine Xing as the same, there is a moon without the moon do not have to worry about ...... but I wish my body is stronger and healthier, do not make the flesh and bones sigh north and south.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, this poem was originally thinking of family members, but in the end it lamented the fall of the motherland, the north and south of the bones and flesh separation.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1174 A.D., the first year of Emperor Xiaozong Chunxi of the Southern Song Dynasty, the famous Southern Song Dynasty lyricist Xin Qiji wrote a poem titled "Tai Chang Quotation - Jiankang Mid-Autumn Festival Night for Lv Shu Chun Fu", which reads:

The wheel of the Autumn Shadow turns to the Golden Wave, and the flying mirror is again grinding. Hou Yi (姮娥) is a woman who has been recognized for her white hair and her deception. I'm sure you'll be able to see the mountains and rivers from the sky.

Xin Qiji is the Southern Song Dynasty famous anti-Jin dynasty, this word he was written to his friend, borrowing the full moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, to express the desire of the broken mountains and rivers, and the recovery of the homeland. Although it does not reflect "homesickness", it is full of feelings of family and country. Can indirectly illustrate the Southern Song literati on the Mid-Autumn Festival nostalgia for the feelings of the homeland.

In fact, after the shame of Jingkang, the Song dynasty lost half of the country, isolated, in order to avoid war, most of the rich merchants, scholarly men moved to the south. However, China has always been a place of peace and stability, and after moving away from their homeland, people miss the northern land and their separated relatives more and more. While the literati could express their feelings in poetry, the lower class people could only look at the moon in the sky during the Mid-Autumn Festival to express their homesickness, so the festival theme of "homesickness" developed very quickly in the folklore.

In addition to the political environment, the development of science also contributed to the formation of the theme of homesickness.

In the mid-to-late Southern Song Dynasty, the development of science was rapid, and Confucianism advocated "loyalty, filial piety, fraternal duty, and righteousness", which was even more advocated by society. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, people accompanied their families, filial piety and respect for their parents, which became a necessary sentiment for the festival. Over time, when people are alone or far away from their hometowns, this "homesickness" is not only a holiday tradition, but also accompanied by the ethical drive in the bones.

To sum up, the Mid-Autumn Festival has been a tradition of the Tang Dynasty, and the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Southern Song Dynasty, where the "moon" and the "reunion" were celebrated. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the festival themes of "moon viewing" and "reunion" were still present, and due to the political environment and the development of science, the Mid-Autumn Festival formed another theme of "homesickness", and a variety of festival themes intersected to form a richer Mid-Autumn Festival themes and customs.

Fourth, thousands of miles **** Cindy: Summarize the three main themes of the Mid-Autumn Festival

The formation and development of China's traditional festivals are y affected by historical and cultural factors, and it is precisely this influence that makes the traditional festivals retain its stability and vitality of development. The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the ancient Chinese working people's worship of the moon, which was continuously improved in the development of history. During the Tang Dynasty, "enjoying the moon" became a major trend of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and later gradually formed a custom. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival added the festive theme of "reunion" due to the change in the morale of the scholarly class, and the festival was introduced to the people by the scholarly class, merging with China's agrarian civilization. In the Southern Song Dynasty, due to historical reasons and the development of science, the festival theme of "homesickness" began to be integrated, forming the important festival culture of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The three major festival themes of moonlight appreciation, reunion, and homesickness have been inherited and developed by later generations, contributing to the unique position of the Mid-Autumn Festival among traditional festivals, which has lasted for a long time. But wishing for a long time, thousands of miles **** Canyuanjuan, in the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, I would like to take this article, wishing all readers a happy family.