The origin of the first yuan festival Zhongyuan Festival The origin of the next yuan festival

Introduction of the origin and customs of the Zhongyuan Festival:

On the 15th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar, the Zhongyuan Festival, it is a time to pay careful attention to the end of the year and to give thanks to our ancestors. We Chinese have always honored our ancestors. The two festivals, Qingming and Zhongyuan, express the nostalgia of the living for their departed loved ones. These traditional festivals not only mean sweeping tombs and paying homage to ancestors and memorializing them, but also contain national beliefs that go deep into the marrow of the bones.

The name "Zhongyuan" originated in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and according to the Ming Dynasty notebook "Wugaizan", "The 15th day of the first month of the Taoist scripture is the upper yuan, the 15th day of the seventh month is the middle yuan, and the 15th day of the tenth month is the lower yuan." It is also called the Bon Festival, commonly known as the "Ghost Festival". Legend has it that on this day, the gates of hell will be opened in the underground palace, so that deceased loved ones can go home and eat again.

On this day, people, although due to different regions, festival customs are different, but everyone is the same in the memory of ancestors, missing the deceased. People's thoughts fluttered in the river lamps, rose in the burning of paper and incense, and flowed between the lines of poetry.

Long before the Mid-Yuan Festival, poems expressing nostalgia for the deceased had already been published.