What are the customs of Guangzhou Mid-Autumn Festival?

Mid-Autumn Festival has an interesting traditional custom in Guangzhou, which is called "Tree Mid-Autumn Festival". Every Mid-Autumn Festival, every household should tie lanterns with bamboo sticks. Lanterns have various beginnings, including fruit lanterns, birds, animals, fish and insects, and can also be made into Chinese lanterns. At night, candles are lit in the lights, and many small lights are connected below, tied to bamboo poles with ropes. Then insert bamboo poles at the height of the house, such as platforms, roofs or big trees. At night, the lights in the city are like stars, competing with the bright moon in the sky to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is also called "Vertical Mid-Autumn Festival".

Worship the moonlight:

Worship of moonlight is mainly one of the southern national customs. The ceremony was held at the Mid-Autumn Festival when the moon rose.

In ancient times, people were mainly engaged in agriculture, which was closely related to seasonal changes, and autumn in a year, that is, the middle of August in the lunar calendar, was the golden harvest season. The word "autumn" originally meant "ripe grain". The people worked hard and finally waited for a bumper harvest, so every household set up wine to prepare dishes, prayed for the smooth farming, held a series of ceremonies and celebrations, and thanked the gods for their blessing. In ancient times, it was called "Autumn Newspaper". This is the beginning of Yue Bai custom.

In addition, there is another saying that it inherited the custom of the Zhou Emperor to sacrifice the moon every autumn equinox. The ancients had long known the natural changes from the full moon to the Mid-Autumn Festival, so there were activities of "offering sacrifices to the moon" and "Yue Bai" around the Mid-Autumn Festival. "Book of Rites": "The son of heaven is sunny in spring and autumn is in the evening. Asahi is already in the morning and evening is in the evening. " "Late Moon" refers to Yue Bai. Zhou Tianzi worships the sun at the vernal equinox, the moon at the autumnal equinox, the sun in the morning and the moon at night. There is a poem to go: "Du Men Zhu Zhi Ci" in Fuqing, Qing Li: "Cut the cake and divide the melons into several cases, which is a total of Yue Bai gods. I went back to Ning Sister-in-law's house to meet my sister's anger. "

The ceremony in Yue Bai is: On the day of the moon, people with roofs are on the roofs, while those without roofs erect bamboo at the door and put up lights. Set a sacrificial table with moon cakes, tea, candy, taro, water chestnut, grapefruit, banana, carambola, persimmon and sweet potato (taro is placed in the center of the plate with taro seeds around it) to sacrifice to the moon. When offering sacrifices to the moon, you should burn incense and light candles, and make sincere wishes and prayers.

Chinese lantern

On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, the sky is as clear as water and the moon is as bright as a mirror, which can be described as a beautiful scene. However, this big family was not satisfied, so they had the custom of burning lanterns to help the moon. In Huguang area, tile-stacked towers are used and lights are burned on the towers to preserve customs. There are lantern boats in Jiangnan. In the modern Mid-Autumn Festival, the custom of burning lanterns is more popular. Modern people Zhou Yunjin and He Wei said in the article "Talking about the Four Seasons": "Guangdong lanterns are the most prosperous, and every household uses bamboo sticks to tie lanterns ten days before the festival. Make words such as fruits, birds and animals, fish and insects and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and paint various colors on the paste paper. Mid-autumn night lights are tied to bamboo poles with ropes, and tall trees are placed on tile eaves or terraces, or small lights are used to spell fonts or various shapes, and hung on the heights of houses, commonly known as Mid-Autumn Festival among trees or Mid-Autumn Festival vertically. Rich people can hang lights as high as tens of feet. The family gathered under the lamp to enjoy drinking, and ordinary people erected a flagpole and two lanterns to enjoy themselves. " The city is brightly lit, like a glass world. "It seems that since ancient times, the custom of burning lanterns in the Mid-Autumn Festival seems to be second only to the Lantern Festival in scale.

This Mid-Autumn Festival, the conservative folk custom of "carrying lanterns" is still popular! In Zhongshan, the old folk artists who used to make lanterns at will have returned to their old jobs this year. The demand for lanterns is in short supply, and the folk life has returned to the upsurge, making the old artists' seven-day long vacation more comfortable.

Mid-Autumn Festival, carrying lanterns and eating moon cakes are all essential programs. "When we were young, papaya lanterns were popular, and fancy lanterns made of papaya skin were very interesting. Papaya lanterns accompanied me through my childhood. " When I was a child, there were banana lights besides papaya lights. Almost every family's children will. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, many children can play with lanterns, and everyone goes to the fields to enjoy the moon. It is a tradition to enjoy the moon with lanterns. Conservative handmade lanterns have many cultural elements. For example, the paintings on lanterns, such as "Fairy Scattering Flowers", "the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon" and "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", all have a strong cultural atmosphere. And holding lanterns to enjoy the moon is especially for communicating with relatives and family. Small miniature lanterns add warmth and romance to the Mid-Autumn Festival. "