The origin and customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival 300 words

The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the ancient Chinese custom of autumn rituals and moon worship. In the Book of Rites, it is written, "The Son of Heaven rises towards the sun in the spring, and the moon in the fall. The sun in the morning, the moon in the evening." Here the "moon" is to worship the meaning of the moon. It had already taken shape in the two Han Dynasty, and in the Tang Dynasty, the custom of enjoying the moon in mid-autumn began to flourish and was designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival. Ouyang Zhan (785 AD - about 827 years) in the "Chang'an play moon poem preface" cloud: "August in the fall. August is the beginning of autumn, the end of the season; the fifteenth day of the month is the night, and the moon is in the clouds. In the heavenly way, the cold and heat are even, and in the number of the moon, the toad soul is round, so it is called mid-autumn."

Customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is an ancient festival, and moon worship and moon appreciation are important customs of the festival. Ancient emperors had the social system of sacrificing the sun in spring and the moon in autumn, and folk families also had the wind of sacrificing the moon in the mid-autumn festival. In later years, moon appreciation was more important than moon sacrifice, and serious sacrifices turned into relaxing entertainment. Mid-Autumn Moon Festival custom in the Tang Dynasty flourished, many poets in the famous poems of the moon in the poem, Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty court and folk moon worship and moon worship activities on a larger scale. Whenever the moon rises in the Mid-Autumn Festival, set up cases in the open air, moon cakes, pomegranates, dates and other fruits and vegetables for the table, worship the moon, the whole family sat around the table, eating and talking, *** enjoy the moon. Now, the moon worship activities have been replaced by a large-scale, colorful mass moon viewing fun activities.

Eating moon cakes is another custom of the festival, moon cakes symbolize reunion. The production of mooncakes has become more and more elaborate since the Tang Dynasty. Su Dongpo wrote a poem: "small cakes such as chewing the moon, there are crispy and syrup", the Qing Dynasty Yang Guangfu wrote: "moon cakes full of peach filling, ice cream sweet laying cane sugar frosting". It seems that the moon cake and now has been quite similar.