What are the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival in China?

Eating mooncakes and enjoying the moon seems to have always been a tradition of the Mid-Autumn Festival in our minds. So, besides mooncakes, what are the other traditional customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival? Why don't you take a look

? What are the traditional customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival:?

?1, moon worship

China's people in ancient times, there is "autumn sunset" custom. The moon, that is, to worship the moon god. To the Zhou Dynasty, every mid-autumn night to hold welcome cold and moon festival. A large incense burner was set up, and mooncakes, watermelons, apples, jujubes, plums, grapes and other offerings were placed on the table, among which mooncakes and watermelons were absolutely indispensable. The watermelon should also be cut in the shape of a lotus flower. Under the moon, the statue of the moon god is placed in the direction of the moon, red candles are lit high, the whole family worships the moon in turn, and then the housewife in charge cuts the mooncakes 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.

?2, lanterns

China's folk since ancient times has been the custom of the Mid-Autumn Festival held lanterns. The Northern Song Dynasty, "the old story of Wulin" recorded in the Mid-Autumn Festival, there will be "a little red" lamp into the river drift play activities. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival custom is more prevalent, many places have formed the tree Mid-Autumn Festival, put the sky lanterns and other customs.

The lanterns are not only varied, but also often decorated with paper cuttings, paintings, poems and other decorations, which is a kind of display of China's traditional folk handicrafts. In Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, "tree Mid-Autumn Festival" activities is the meaning of colorful lanterns up high, bright lights not only make the festive atmosphere more intense, but also become a unique landscape of the city. In the Nanning area of Guangxi, in addition to paper and bamboo to tie all kinds of lanterns for children to play, there are also very simple sleeve lamps, pumpkin lamps, orange lamps. The so-called "sky lanterns", that is, the Kongming lanterns, made of paper lamps, light candles under the lamps, hot air can make the lamps fly into the air, attracting laughter and chasing.

Lamps symbolize hope. It is very popular in Chinese traditional festivals to appreciate the lamps, which shows the optimism of the Chinese people towards life and the hope for the future.

?3, light

Mid-Autumn Festival night, the sky as clear as water, the moon is as bright as a mirror, can be described as a good time of the beautiful scenery, however, the people are not satisfied, so there will be burning lamps to help the moon's custom.

Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon is bright, people will go on a trip, that time to go on a trip is to hold a lantern, so then there is a lamp to help the custom of the color of the moon. The origin of "burning lanterns" is the "three elements" of Taoism: the 15th day of the first month of the first yuan festival, the 15th day of the seventh month for the middle yuan festival, the 15th day of October for the lower yuan festival. The three officials in charge of the upper, middle and lower yuan are "heaven", "earth" and "man" respectively. Heavenly officials are happy, so the lanterns should be lit on the Lantern Festival. Lantern Festival Lantern fire wind, since the Han Dynasty. To the Tang Dynasty, it has become a custom. To the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the people will be in the Mid-Autumn Festival when there is also the custom of burning lamps.

?4, enjoy osmanthus flowers? Drink osmanthus wine

Mid-Autumn Festival osmanthus is a traditional custom since ancient times, osmanthus behind the good symbolism, in addition to noble, beautiful, it is also linked to the economy of the career, is to take the "Toad Palace," the good intentions of the osmanthus, in order to get the examination. Appreciating osmanthus at Mid-Autumn Festival signifies people's pursuit and praise of sweet life. In ancient times, people regarded osmanthus and its fruit as a symbol of nobility, beauty and good fortune. Therefore, enjoying osmanthus flowers and drinking osmanthus wine during the Mid-Autumn Festival is also a custom of the Mid-Autumn Festival and a beautiful scenery.

Drinking osmanthus wine on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, people look up at the laurel in the moon, smell the fragrance of osmanthus, drink a cup of osmanthus honey wine, celebrate the sweetness of the family, get together, has become a festival of a kind of beauty to enjoy. Osmanthus flowers are not only ornamental, but also have food value. Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs", there will be "aid the steed bucket Ruizhi cinnamon pulp", "Dien Gui wine Ruizhi pepper pulp" of the poem. Visible in our country drink cinnamon winemaking years, has been quite a long time.

?5, tasting crab

This is the custom in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Mid-Autumn is "crab paste fat, rice flowers" season. A full moon, a pot of wine, a few old friends, a plate of hairy crabs, the taste of the gods. Back to secular life: but today's hairy crabs must be expensive enough, might as well fifteen moon sixteen round, stay until tomorrow to eat also.

?6, eat snails

In the Qing Xianfeng years of the "Shunde County Records" recorded: "August hope, still taro food snails." Mid-autumn food snail, is the finale of the Mid-Autumn Festival in many Guangdong people, a folk think that eating snails can be bright eyes, legend has it that eating snails on the 15th of August, can make the eyes "bright as the moon in autumn"; secondly, the snail's fat, but also means a good thing; thirdly, snails have shells, peeling shells to eat the meat of the "food heart (new) transit The first is that the snail has a shell, and the meat is peeled off for "eating heart (new) luck", in order to get rid of evil spirits and bad luck.

On the other hand, the word "snail" and the Cantonese "Luo" word homophonic, the snail that "to the field Luo food", as the saying goes, "no food, ask the As the saying goes, "If you don't have food, ask for it". Eating snails on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival has the meaning of a good harvest, which represents the abundance of grains and cereals.

?7, burning tower

Mid-Autumn Night burning tower. Pagoda height ranging from 1-3 meters, mostly made of broken tiles, large towers are also made of bricks, about 1/4 of the height of the tower, and then stacked with tiles and into the top of the tower to leave a mouth, for the release of fuel. Mid-autumn night will be burning fire, fuel wood, bamboo, husk, etc., when the fire is strong throw rosin powder, lead to the flame to help, extremely spectacular.

The folk also have a race to burn tower regulations, who burned the whole seat of the Wata red through the win, less than or in the burning process of the collapse of the negative, the winners were issued by the host of the colorful flags, prizes or prizes. It is rumored that the burning tower is also the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Han Chinese people against the brutal rulers, in the Mid-Autumn Uprising for the origin of the fire.

Modern people use the "burning pagoda" to pray for the fullness of the rice, the family red-hot, friends and family peace and security. This custom is still practiced in Jiangxi and Guangzhou.

?8, tide

The custom of mid-autumn tide-watching has a long history, Su Shi's "tide on August 15": "surely know that the Jade Rabbit is very round, has been made of frosty winds in September cold. Sending word to the heavy door to rest on the key, the night tide to stay to the moon to see." In ancient times, Zhejiang, in addition to the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, tide watching can be considered another Mid-Autumn event. Until today, Qiantang tide is still the most characteristic folk activities of Zhejiang Mid-Autumn Festival.

In addition, many special Mid-Autumn Festival customs have been formed in some places. In addition to enjoying the moon, sacrificing to the moon and eating moon cakes, there are also Hong Kong's fire dragon dance, Anhui's piling up pagodas, Guangzhou's tree mid-autumn festival, Jinjiang's burning pagodas, Suzhou's Shihu to see the string of the moon, Dai's worshiping the moon, Miao's jumping to the moon, Dong's stealing the moon's vegetables, and Gaoshan's dancing with the ball.