Why should the Mid-Autumn Festival sacrifice the moon?

# Mid-Autumn Festival # Introduction Mid-Autumn Festival has a profound plot in the hearts of China people. China people regard the full moon as a symbol of reunion, while China people pay attention to family reunion and pray for happiness. Therefore, people also call Mid-Autumn Festival "Reunion Festival". On this day, the main activity of the whole family to enjoy the moon is to eat moon cakes. Moon cake is a round cake, like a full moon, symbolizing reunion. Sugar, sesame, osmanthus, peanuts, bean paste, etc. Wrapped in a cake, delicate patterns such as the moon and Chang 'e are pressed outside the cake or printed with the words "Guanghan Palace" to represent the bright moon. The elders in the family divide the mooncakes into pieces according to the number of people, one for each person, and one for someone who is not at home, indicating family reunion. By the Mid-Autumn Festival, wanderers in different places are more homesick, and they have pinned their affection on the bright moon. Zhang Jiuling (678-740), a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem "When is the bright moon at sea, and the horizon is * * *", which became the common wish of China people at home and abroad in the Mid-Autumn Festival. August 15th of the China lunar calendar is the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is a very important traditional festival in China. On this day, China people will enjoy the moon and wish each other reunion and happiness. There's nothing down there!

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There are many ancient legends about the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival, among which "the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon" is the most popular. Legend has it that Chang 'e's husband Hou Yi was a hero who saved people's lives. They want to live forever and love each other forever. So Hou Yi went through all kinds of hardships and asked Tianhou for the elixir of life. After Hou Yi's apprentice knew about it, on August 15, while Hou Yi was not at home, he threatened Chang 'e to hand over the fairy medicine. Chang 'e was forced to swallow the fairy medicine in one gulp. As a result, she was as light as smoke and flew into the sky. From then on, she became a fairy who lived in the Moon Palace for a long time, separated from Houyi. When Hou Yi came home to learn about this incident, he was very sad, so he offered melon and fruit food in the hospital and pinned his thoughts on Chang 'e. The villagers respected the feelings of Hou Yi and Chang 'e and followed Yue Bai's example.

In fact, the Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the ritual of offering sacrifices to the moon in ancient China. According to China's ancient books, as early as 2,000 years ago, ancient emperors had a ceremony of Yue Bai in spring to pray for a bumper harvest. The ancients believed that if there was no moon to give dew and no moon to calculate the farming season, there would be no bumper harvest. The famous architectural altar in Beijing was the place where the Ming Dynasty (1368- 1644) offered a royal sacrifice to the moon.

The Mid-Autumn Festival evolved from the Tang Dynasty in the seventh century to the activities of enjoying the moon. Legend has it that Tang was a versatile and charismatic emperor, and he enjoyed watching the moon very much. One year on August 15th, Tang looked at the bright moon and had a whim to travel to the moon. He came to the moon by magic. In front of a palace with the words "Guanghan Palace", a group of fairies danced with beautiful music, and Tang was fascinated. After returning to earth, he composed the music he heard in the Moon Palace into colorful feather clothes, which became a masterpiece handed down from generation to generation. Once such an elegant story spread, people followed suit and gathered together at the full moon to enjoy the beautiful scenery on earth. Over time, the serious sacrifice turned into a light moon festival.

Because autumn is the harvest season for farmers, the Mid-Autumn Festival is actually the "Autumn Harvest Festival" for farmers, who drink and dance on this day to celebrate the harvest with joy. Princes, nobles and scholars all regard Mid-Autumn Festival as a romantic festival. They entertain and dance, oppose poetry, and express their feelings through the bright moon. Whether rich or powerful, or ordinary people, enjoying the moon is a pleasure. Many historical sites, such as Yue Bai Altar, Moon Pavilion and Moon Tower, are still all over China, which is proof of this.

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The Mid-Autumn Festival comes from me.

The word "Mid-Autumn Festival" appeared in the Zhenguan period of Emperor Taizong. There is a record in Emperor Taizong's book that "August 15th is the Mid-Autumn Festival", which shows that there was already the embryonic form of the festival at that time. The activities of Mid-Autumn Festival have been enriched by the spirit of freedom and romance in the Tang Dynasty, while inheriting the rituals of offering sacrifices to the moon in previous dynasties. For example, the emergence of myths such as the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, WU GANG Jade Rabbit, and a night trip to the Moon Palace in the Tang Dynasty has made the Mid-Autumn Festival culture full of colorful colors and romantic charm since the Tang Dynasty, and the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival has been fully developed and evolved.

The prevalence of Mid-Autumn Festival began in Song Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the court officially designated August 15th of the lunar calendar as the Mid-Autumn Festival, which was a holiday for worldly happiness. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival continued to develop in the direction of folklore, and eventually became a folk festival called the four traditional festivals in China together with the Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Dragon Boat Festival. On May 20th, 2006, Mid-Autumn Festival was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage list. In 2008, Mid-Autumn Festival was listed as a national legal holiday.

Royal sacrifice to the moon

The so-called "the sun is the master of Yang" and "the moon is the master of Yin". In the concept of ancestors, the sun and the moon represent yin and yang, and the harmony between them is the guarantee for the normal growth of all things. Book of rites? "Sacrifice to Righteousness" records: "The sunrise is in the east, the moon is in the west, and the length of Yin and Yang will eventually tour each other, and even the sum of the world." Therefore, ancestors attached great importance to offering sacrifices to the sun and the moon.

At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhou Li recorded: "In mid-spring, I beat the drum to write" Poetry of Divination "to counter the summer heat; The mid-autumn night is cold and cold. " It describes the scene of ancestors beating gongs and drums to play music and offering sacrifices to the moon to welcome the cold on Mid-Autumn Festival night. "Sacrifice to Righteousness" says "Sacrifice to the altar of the sun and the ridge of the moon". That is, according to the relationship between yin and yang represented by the sun and the moon, the sun is sacrificed to the high platform and the moon is sacrificed to the pit. "Historical Records" and "Amenorrhea" also record that "the ox sacrifices the sun and the sheep sacrifices the moon." Sacrifice cows to the sun and sheep and pigs to the moon.

During the Qin and Han dynasties, offering sacrifices to the moon continued to spread in the royal etiquette. During the Qin dynasty, there were shrines of the sun and the moon all over the country, and there were shrines of the sun and the moon in Shandong. Qin Shihuang sacrificed the day to become a mountain and the moon to come to the mountain. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was in office, he bowed to the moon and performed the ceremony of the moon. Northern Wei Dynasty, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Ming and Qing Dynasties followed the etiquette of offering sacrifices to the moon at the autumnal equinox. During the reign of Sejong in the Ming Dynasty, a moon altar was built in Beijing to worship the emperor at the autumnal equinox and worship the moon god at night. This is the Yuetan Park in Beijing now. "Ming Jiajing Festival" records: "Autumn Equinox Sacrifices the Moon Altar." He also said: "The moon altar is sacrificed every three years. Sacrifice to ugliness, Chen, Wei and Xu. Asahi sent civil servants and Xi sent military ministers. " That is, there is a big sacrifice every three years, and the emperor personally sacrifices the moon at the altar to prevent ugliness, Chen, Wei and Xu. In other years, civil servants were sent to worship the sun and military officers were sent to worship the moon.

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Folk sacrifice to the moon

With the passage of time, the ritual of offering sacrifices to the moon, which was originally pursued by the imperial court and the upper class nobles, gradually spread to the people in China. Ritual royal worship of gods has become a popular utilitarian folk activity, and gradually formed a custom to continue. At the same time, the day of offering sacrifices to the moon has also moved from the autumnal equinox to the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is the closest full moon day to the autumnal equinox.

Since the Song Dynasty, the custom of offering sacrifices to the moon in autumn began to turn into begging for the blessing of the moon god. Men pursue fame and fortune, while women pursue beauty like a fairy. In the Song Dynasty, Jin Yingzhi recorded in August, Volume 4 of Talk about the New Drunken Man: "The Mid-Autumn Festival is different from other counties in enjoying the moon in the capital. Children in the whole city, regardless of wealth, can attend twelve or thirteen classes by themselves, and all wear adult clothes to go upstairs, or in the atrium of Yue Bai, each has its own period: men are willing to leave early and climb the fairy's laurel. Women are willing to look like Chang 'e and Yan Ruhaoyue. "

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival offered sacrifices to the moon, forming a relatively fixed ritual. In the Ming Dynasty, Dong Liu and Yu Yizheng's "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" described the Mid-Autumn Festival custom in Beijing in the Ming Dynasty: "On August 15th, the moon is sacrificed, and the fruit cake must be round; If you divide a melon, it will be carved like a lotus. Paper market moonlight paper, painted like a full moon, sitting in the lotus, the moonlight is full of bodhisattvas. There was a rabbit pestle and a man standing in the ghost temple under the moon in China, pounding medicine in a mortar. The paper is three inches small and three inches high, and the workers are colorful. Moonlight is located in the middle of the month, while Yue Bai burns moonlight paper, withdraws the offerings, and disperses the family calendar. Moon cakes bear fruit, and relatives feed them back. The cake is two feet in diameter. When a woman returns to Ning, she will return to her husband's house one day, which is also called the Reunion Festival. " It describes setting up a sacrificial box for people facing the moon on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, in which round offerings such as moon cakes and fruits are provided to worship the moon. Then burned the moonlight paper and divided the sacrifices.

Sacrificing the moon was still popular in the Republic of China, but it gradually disappeared after 1949 because of the change of the situation, so modern people only eat moon cakes and don't know how to sacrifice the moon. However, in recent years, official or non-governmental organizations' activities of offering sacrifices to the moon have resurfaced.

China is called "the state of etiquette". Confucius has a proverb, "If you don't learn etiquette, you can't stand". Sacrificial etiquette is an important part of a national culture, and the auspicious ceremony, which ranks first in China's traditional "Five Rites", is the ritual of offering sacrifices to the gods of heaven and earth.

Therefore, it should be said that it is inevitable for the historical development that the activities of offering sacrifices to the moon are re-valued. Because ceremony is the main carrier of cultural communication, with the continuous development of society, Tomb-Sweeping Day's annual sacrifice to the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, the Dragon Boat Festival sacrifice to Qu Yuan, the Mid-Autumn Festival Yue Bai and Confucius' birthday (August 27th) and other activities will become the main ceremonies for the Chinese nation to inherit Chinese civilization for thousands of years.

Ceremony of offering sacrifices to the moon

The ritual of offering sacrifices to the moon in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as described in Scenery of the Imperial Capital, is a family-based ritual activity, and it is also a folk ritual activity with the theme of "family reunion" developed according to the Mid-Autumn Festival after the Tang Dynasty.

Worship the moon. "The Analects of Confucius" said, "Sacrifice to God as if you were near." Say, worship God as you are around. You should be able to bathe and change clothes before the Mid-Autumn Festival to show your respect for the moon god.

On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, families get together and hold a memorial ceremony in the direction of the moon rising. Before the ceremony, the moon statue (commonly known as moonlight paper) was hung high, and food such as moon cakes, wine, watermelons (cut into lotus shapes) or other fruits were placed as sacrifices, plus two red candles, a small incense burner (or incense burner) and three wine glasses (or wine glasses). If you kneel down (also known as sitting in the Han Dynasty, that is, your knees are tight, your hips are sitting on your heels, and your instep is on the ground), you need to kneel down before filing a case.

Choose priests from the family (there was a custom that "men were not Yue Bai" in Ming and Qing Dynasties, so priests were generally female elders in the family. However, the customs of Ming and Qing dynasties can be ignored in modern moon worship. In addition, in order to cultivate the younger generation's understanding and love for traditional culture, the post of priest can also be held by the younger generation's family. Custom can be inherited or broken, and there is no need to stick to it. ), whose duty is to represent and lead the family to exercise the ritual of offering sacrifices to the moon. Choose another tribute to lead the process of offering sacrifices to the moon.

Modern Mid-Autumn Festival moon appreciation should be based on the inheritance of thousands of years of traditional culture in China. Guide the mind to recognize and integrate traditional culture and etiquette. The mind is everywhere, but it can be informal in details. Connecting the past with the future, not limited to the past, this is the state in which modern people should sacrifice to the moon.