What is the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival custom?

Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional Chinese festival. On the day of the festival, there are customs of offering moon worship, paying homage to the moon, enjoying the moon and eating moon cakes.

On the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival custom, there are various sayings: ① According to historical records, in ancient times in China, the emperors had the ritual system of "sacrificing the sun in the spring and the moon in the fall", and the fifteenth day of each month in each season of the lunar calendar, respectively, called "Meng", The fifteenth day of each month in each season of the lunar calendar was called "Meng", "Zhong" and "Ji" respectively. August 15 in the middle of the fall, so called "mid-autumn" or "mid-autumn" festival. In ancient times, the long period of war caused the destruction of the country and the poverty of the people, and the separation of wives and children. People longed for the reunion and happiness, and often used the moon to send feelings, looking at the moon to miss their homes and loved ones. (3) In ancient times, due to the lack of understanding of the natural sciences of the universe, the "moon" as a symbol of "sadness and happiness", thus fantasizing to the moon palace, there must be some gods and goddesses, worship them can bless themselves. Therefore, in the folk gradually formed the moon sacrifice, moon worship ceremony and enjoy the moon to eat reunion moon cake custom.

There are many special customs on the Mid-Autumn Festival, such as eating roast duck or salted duck in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province; every household in Kunming, Yunnan Province, must make a "big moon cake for the whole family", and then one person will eat a piece of it.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also celebrated in foreign countries, such as North Korea, where it is called the "Autumn Sunset Festival," in which they eat steamed cakes and pancakes stuffed with soybean flour while enjoying the moon.

Is it true that people climb to the top of the mountain on the Chongyang Festival to avoid calamities?

We call the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar "Chongyang Festival" because "nine" represents the number of yang, and it just so happens that this day repeats two nines, so it is called "Chongyang".

Why do we need to climb the mountain on the Chongyang Festival? Legend has it that during the Han Dynasty in China, there was a man named Huanjing, and one day, a Taoist priest who called himself Changfang suddenly came to his house.

This Taoist priest told Huanjing, "Your family on September 9, this day, there will be a catastrophe, if your whole family with a red bag of 'cornelian cherry', hanging on the armpit, and then go to the outskirts of the mountain to drink 'chrysanthemum wine' can avoid this catastrophe."

On the ninth day of the ninth month, Huan Jing really took the whole family to climb the mountain, wearing cornelian cherry and drinking chrysanthemum wine, and did not return home until dusk.

When Huanjing's family returned home, they were surprised to find that the chickens, dogs, cows, and sheep in their home were all dead. It turned out that these poultry and livestock had died in place of the family, allowing Huanjing and his family to escape the disaster.

From then on, everyone had the custom of ascending the heights on the 9th day of the 9th moon!

Nowadays, on the Chongyang Festival, few people bother to wear cornelian cherry, and the custom of drinking chrysanthemum wine is nowhere to be seen! However, the trend of mountaineering is on the rise!

Actually, it's not important to avoid disasters on the 9th day of the 12th lunar month, what's important is that we all go hiking together on a high day in autumn, so that we can feel the nature, but also to enhance our relationship, is not it the best of both worlds?

The Chongyang Festival also has the custom of enjoying chrysanthemums. This custom began in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the famous literary scholar, idyllic poet Tao Yuanming. He loved chrysanthemums all his life, and every Chrysanthemum Festival, his friends and family came to enjoy chrysanthemums with him.

Juju is a medicinal plant with a strong aroma that repels mosquitoes and kills insects, and chrysanthemum wine has the effect of clearing heat and removing toxins and brightening the eyes, so this custom has the effect of preventing fall epidemics.