Folk Customs of the Mid-Yuan Festival

Domestic

Hebei Province: Botou City, Nampi County on July 15 to carry fruit, dried meat, wine, kozo money, etc. to the graveyard of ancestors. The festival is also known as the "New Recommendation", which involves taking hemp and grain to the field stalks. In Guangping County, seasonal food is offered to ancestors on the Mid-Yuan Festival, and fruits, vegetables and steamed goats are prepared and given to grandchildren, which is called "sending goats". In Qinghe County, on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, people visit the graves of their ancestors and present their daughters with steamed sheep.

Shanxi Province: Yonghe County readers on this day of sacrifice Kui Xing. Changzi County, the shepherd's family in the middle of the Yuan Festival slaughtering sheep race God, the popular rumor so that the sheep can increase production. And give meat to the relatives, poor family without sheep is steamed noodles in the shape of sheep to replace. Yangcheng County, farmers to wheat shavings made into cats, tigers and the shape of grains, in the field rituals, known as "line field. The people of Ma Yi County used wheat flour to make children's shapes on the Mid-Yuan Festival, called "noodle man", and gave them to each other as gifts to the children of their relatives. In Xin County, farmers hang five-colored paper on the stalks of their fields on the Mid-Yuan Festival.

Henan Province: Shangqiu County in the Yuan Festival, hanging paper flags at the door, the legend can prevent insects. Mengjin County in the Yuan Festival kite flying. Open County on July 15 in front of the door to draw a gray circle, burning paper in the circle to worship ancestors.

Shandong Province: Long Island fishermen to board Panicum made of small boats, on the sticker a note "for the use of xxx," or for the drowned person's tablet, and then loaded with food, clothes, hats, shoes and socks and other paraphernalia, and then light candles, by the married man will be put into the sea boat. In Zhanhua County, each family picks hemp and fresh grass to build a shed called a "hemp house" and invites ancestors to worship in it. Duling County called the Mid-Yuan Festival for the Choke Festival, the family ate tea and rice.

Shanxi Province: Lintong County, July 15, burning paper sacrifices Ma Gu. Chenggu County in the Yuan Festival farmers will drink, called "hanging hoe". Yanzhou farmers, the morning of the Mid-Yuan Festival to the field, select the highest, the most dense ears of rice, hanging five-colored paper flags, called "field pennant".

Jiangsu Province: Wu County residents of the Mid-Yuan Festival to tin foil folding ingots, incinerated along the road, called "knot ghosts". Yizheng County is still popular all over the paper ghosts, hidden bowl lights, gambling ghosts, drunkards, big old officials and so on. Yixing County in the Yuan Festival in the river to put four boats, a fireworks, a carrier of the Buddha's grandmother Nianfo, a burnt tin foil paper ingots, a river lamps. The villagers in Dongxian County eat flat food on this day, which is a kind of food made of flour and sugar in the shape of a dustpan. Shanghai River Lanterns, in the stern of the boat decorated with red and green paper lanterns, known as the "degree of loneliness".

Sichuan Province: Sichuan Province, commonly used in the Yuan dynasty ancestor burning burden paper. To be a stack of paper money, sealed into a small seal, written above the recipient's name and name, the number of seals received, the name of the person and time. Popular legend has it that on July 15, when the ghost gate is closed, all the families have to "send children to the orphans". People around Chengdu use paper to tie "flower plate", put paper money and fruit offerings on it, put it in their hands, and read it while walking around the house: "Friends and relatives, neighbors, original residents, the souls of the dead who can't go back, and all the orphans and wild ghosts, all of them are invited to go on the flower plate, and send you back to the house. Said the end of the incineration to the outside of the house.

Zhejiang Province: Jiashan County to rain on the Mid-Yuan Festival as a sign of a good rice harvest. Tonglu County people in the Yuan Festival evening gong spread rice in the wild, known as the "food". East Zhejiang Bon, please twenty-four old ladies "go eight knot", while reciting the scriptures. Tiantai in the Yuan Festival to eat "dumpling cake", tube similar to spring rolls. There is also the custom of putting street lamps to six strong for a group: a person to beat the gong, a person to play the bang, a person to carry a lantern, a person along the way to spread salt and rice, a person along the way to set up incense and candles (inserted in a piece of sweet potatoes or taro), a person along the way to set up a piece of bean curd and a rice ball (placed in a large tree on the tree), about every hundred paces to set up a sacrificial offering.

Jiangxi Province: Ji'an people burn paper ingots on the Mid-Yuan Festival, but pregnant women are prohibited from folding paper ingots. It is said that pregnant women folded paper ingots, incinerated ghosts can not hold, sent to the netherworld is not beneficial. When the fireworks are set off, the priest throws buns and fruits to the stage. Legend has it that if a woman grabs a bun, she will have a child the following year. If a child grabs a bun, he or she will be free from fear for the rest of his or her life. An Yuan County ancestor worship, first on July 12, incense burning tea, morning and evening offerings. On the fifteenth night, they burn kozo and paper money.

Fujian Province: Yongfu County in the Yuan Festival, married women must go home to their ancestors. In the Fuzhou dialect, it is called the "Paper Burning Festival". Married women to prepare for the parents of the robe in the box, to the yarn cage, called "yarn box", sent to the parents' home. Minzhongyuan has the custom of Pudu, which is always held in both urban and rural areas, and the funds are collected by people along the door. Even the poorest families would try their best to raise money to cope with the event. There is a proverb that says: "If you don't pay for Pudu, the plague will come. If Pudu doesn't contribute, the short master will come to get it. When Pudu is held, there is also the performance of the children's orchestra. In Putu Xian, there are customs such as "family rituals", "Gongmao fever", "sending paper", "gold kuey teow" and so on.

Guangdong Province: Yao tribesmen offer sacrifices to their ancestors on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, as well as to the King of Dogs, and pay tribute to the gods with songs and dances performed by young boys and girls dressed in flowery clothes. The Yao people in Gui Shan County celebrate the 14th day of the 7th month as the Zhong Yuan Festival. It is rumored that the festival is celebrated one day earlier because the Yuan soldiers came down from the south in order to avoid the disaster. Chenghai County in the Yuan Festival sacrifices ancestors and stove God. Deqing Zhou Zhongyuan to winter leaves wrapped in powder as a cake, called "bridge", used to worship ancestors. In ancient Chao Yang County, when giving orphans, rich people would buy plows and harrows, waterwheels, and even girls from poor families, which were written on pieces of paper, and the pieces of paper were also scattered when giving food. Can not afford to buy farming tools or can not afford to marry a wife, you can receive the sheet.

Guangxi Province: Guilin people in the area of the 14th of the month for the Ghost Festival, the entire festival should be the beginning of July 7 to the night of July 14, the process is to meet the ancestors and send ancestors, the process of memorial ancestors; some places from July 7 to meet the ancestors, and some are July 13 to meet the ancestors, but the seventh of July are also to be "Gong Rice On July 14, the ancestors are sent off at night, and the ceremony of sending off the ancestors is held at around 10:00 p.m. after the rituals are performed before dinner, and at the same time, the "wallets" with the names of the ancestors (about how many generations of ancestors are written varies from family to family) and the "wallets" of the danmen and the king of the guiding road are placed in the "wallets" of the ancestors. Yangshan people to July 14 for the Meilian Festival, more than killing ducks to sacrifice ancestors, no pedestrians on the road that day, called "hiding ghosts". In Guangxi Province, the Mid-Yuan Festival is also known as the "Duck Festival", and it is believed that the souls of the dead can stand on the ducks and travel freely between the yang and yin worlds through the transportation of the ducks. In addition, there is also the custom of "burning bags", which generally involves offering sacrifices to ancestors, followed by burning clothes for the ghosts and orphans. The food and wine offered to the ancestors must be placed in a flat colander, meaning that the ghosts are not allowed to snatch it.

Yunnan Province: Teng Yue people burn bags after ancestor worship, but also with a cucumber, carved into a boat-shaped, called "cucumber boat", with the package together with the incineration.

Hunan Province: Shaoyang people in the lunar calendar before and after the twelfth day of the seventh month "to receive the old guest", in the lunar calendar on the night of the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the incineration of the paper bag, burn incense to worship ancestors, said "send the old guest. Paper bag wrapped with inch-thick paper money, paper bag front of the book on the name of the ancestor, wrapped up in the back of the book shall be 'seal' word. Fifteen the night, the more sealed bags burned, the bigger the fire, said the family more prosperous.

Hubei Province: Macheng people around the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, must slaughter livestock, pick up the family name of the aunt reunion over the festival, burning paper money to worship the deceased ancestors. The day of the festival, the first meat and white wine, and "steamed bread" rice, bamboo chopsticks spread between the rice, lights are bright, but also to say the words of sacrifice. The male members of each family personally print on the paper money to make paper money, burn paper after, kneeling to worship the ancestors. Afterwards, the family gathers for a feast. The festival can be held on any day between July 13th and 16th.

Overseas

Thailand: On the 15th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar, the Water Lantern Festival will be held, in which people release lanterns to pray for the departed souls.

Japan: The Bon Festival was introduced to Japan from China during the Sui and Tang dynasties in the Bird Period, and is commonly known as "お盆"(おぼん, pronounced: O-bon, short for Bon). It is celebrated from July 13th to 16th in urban areas and from August 13th to 16th in rural areas. The graves are swept before the 13th day, the ghosts of the deceased are received on the 13th day, and sent on the 16th day. It is also customary to send gifts to the middle of the year, and in folklore, people gather to dance a dance called "Bon-odori" (盆踊), which focuses on hand motions and is similar to the Para Para of today. "Bonshu", a lot of Japanese people who work outside the home are choosing to use this holiday to return home to reunite and worship their ancestors, at this time like the streets of metropolitan cities (such as Tokyo, Osaka, etc.) more than clear, somewhat similar to China's Qingming Festival.

Korea: The Korean Peninsula's Chungwon Festival, also known as "Baekchung Festival", "Baekseong Festival" and "Festival of the Dead Souls", is a traditional festival in North Korea, which comes from the Chinese Taoist religion. It is a traditional Korean festival that originated from the Chinese Taoist and Buddhist Bon festivals, and then developed its Korean characteristics. Compared with the Chinese and Japanese Midwon Festival, which focuses more on ancestor worship and Pudu, the Korean Midwon Festival retains more of the original meaning of celebrating the harvest by farmers in the fall, while the rituals of ancestor worship and sacrificing to the souls of the dead come second.

Singapore: In the Chinese areas of Singapore, in addition to the traditional customs of ancestor worship and Pudu mentioned above, there is also a special performance to entertain the ghosts, which is called "July Songtai" by the local Hokkien people (Southern Fujianese), or simply "Songtai". The local Hokkien (southern Fujianese) call it "July Songtai" or simply "Songtai". These stage performances usually involve setting up a temporary stage in an open space, adding sound equipment and lights, and arranging rows of chairs in the audience gallery under the stage, with the first row of chairs usually reserved for the "good brothers" (ghosts). Often scheduled at night, the performances on stage include witty skits, magic tricks, singing and dancing, and are performed throughout the seventh month of the lunar calendar.

Malaysia: In the Chinese areas of Malaysia, the Mid-Yuan Festival, also known as Yu Lan Sheng Hui or Kheng Zhan Zhong Yuan in addition to ancestor worship Pudu performance of the traditional customs of the various origins of the drama, there is also a special performance to entertain the ghosts of the locals to establish a Singaporean Chinese similar to the culture of the Kodai, and is generally similar to that of Singapore.

Mid-Yuan Pudu

Mid-Yuan is a very important folk festival, and many people will choose a day between the first and 30th days of the seventh month of the old calendar to hold rituals with offerings of wine, meat, sugar cakes and fruits to comfort the ghosts of the families that roam around in the world and to pray for their own peace and prosperity throughout the year. Some people even invite monks and Taoist priests to recite sutras to pray for the souls of the dead. Some people also invite Buddha statues such as the Earth Store Bodhisattva and the Goddess of Mercy to be placed on high platforms during this period, or ask artists to play the role of Zhong Kui, the God of Exorcism (or ask artists to manipulate Zhong Kui's puppets), in order to eliminate the hostility of the deceased's souls.

Ancestor Worship

The Ancestor Worship Festival is held on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, which is why it is simply called the "Half of the Seventh Month" Ancestor Worship Festival. At this time, the summer has passed and the fall has just begun. It is believed that the ancestors will return home to visit their children and grandchildren at this time, so it is necessary to pay homage to the ancestors. The ceremony is usually held in the evening before the end of July and is not limited to a specific day. On normal days, the ancestors are worshipped, and the tablets of the ancestors are usually left untouched. To the "July 30" ancestor worship, it is necessary to the ancestors of the tablets one by one, please come out, respectfully placed on the table dedicated to worship, and then in front of each ancestor's tablets inserted incense, daily morning, afternoon and evening, for three times the tea and rice, until July 30th to send it back to the end of the day. If there are portraits of the ancestors, they should also be invited to hang them up. When worshipping, according to the order of seniority and age, kowtow to each ancestor, pray silently, report to the ancestors and ask them to review their words and deeds this year, and bless them with peace and happiness. Sent back, burn paper money clothing, called burning clothes, or the Buddhist or Taoist overdose rituals. In some areas of Jiangxi and Hunan, the Zhongyuan Festival is a more important day for ancestor worship than the Qingming or Chongyang festivals.

Sacrificing the Land

On the 15th of July, it is also prevalent to sacrifice the land and crops. Offerings are scattered into the fields. After the paper is burned, it is then wrapped around the spikes of crops with five-colored paper cut into strips. Legend has it that it can avoid hailstorms and get a good harvest in the fall. In some places, sacrifices are also made to the Houtu Temple at the same time. Dingxiang County folk custom will hemp, grain hanging door head. It is believed that the Mid-Yuan Festival is a festival of ghosts, and lanterns should also be opened to celebrate the festival for ghosts. However, there is a difference between humans and ghosts, so opening lanterns on the Mid-Yuan is not the same as opening lanterns on the Shang-Yuan. People are yang and ghosts are yin; land is yang and water is yin. Underwater is mysterious and dark, reminding people of the legendary Underworld, where ghosts sink. That is why the lanterns are set up on land in the first yuan, and in the water in the middle yuan. Today, the release of river lanterns has become a joyful activity program. According to the Buddhist rituals of the Bon, releasing river lanterns is only one of the small programs and does not seem to be so important. On the other hand, it is more important in the folk festivals and activities of the Chinese New Year.

River lanterns, also known as "lotus lanterns", river lanterns are generally placed on the base of the lamp or candle, the night of the Mid-Yuan in the rivers, lakes and the sea, let it float. The purpose of the river lanterns is to ferry the ghosts and other ghosts in the water. Modern female writer Xiao Hong "Hulanhe biography" in a paragraph, is the best footnote to this custom: "July 15 is a ghost festival; dead souls and ghosts, not to be born, haunted in hell is very bitter, want to be born, and can not find the way. If there is a dead ghost holding a river lamp on this day, it will be reborn". The road from the underworld to the sun is very dark, and you cannot see the road without a lamp. So the matter of releasing lamps is a good deed. It can be seen that the living righteous people, to the dead souls and ghosts have not forgotten.

The fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is also known as the "Sheep Festival". Han Xu Shen "Shuowen Jiezi" said, "Sheep, Xiang also." Oracle "divination" also said that the sheep through the Xiang. Visible in ancient times, sheep this animal, has always represented the meaning of good luck. Old Beijing and rural areas of northern China, folk popular July 15 by the grandfather, uncle to the little nephews send live sheep custom. Legend has it that this custom is related to the legend of Sinkiang saving his mother by splitting the mountain. Shenxiang split the mountain to save his mother, to kill his mother's uncle abusive Erlang Shen, Erlang Shen in order to repair the brother and sister of good and nephew friendship, every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month to Shenxiang to send a pair of live goats, it is said that this is to take the Erlang Shen and Shenxiang's mother, "Yang," the harmonization of the surname, in order to re-establish the good of the two families. Since then, the custom of sending a live sheep to the uncle has been left behind, which has gradually evolved into sending a pair of live sheep across the street.

July 15 before the festival, the folk women were prevalent in face painting activities, the northern part of the most intense. A steamed bun, four neighbors to help. First of all, according to the actual number of families, to each person first pinch a large flower bun. To give the younger generation of flower buns to pinch into a flat type, known as the face of the sheep, meaning the lamb ate milk kneeling down, I hope that the younger generation do not forget the parents of the grace of upbringing; to give the older generation of flower buns to pinch into a human type, known as the face of the people, meaning that the children and grandchildren, longevity and longevity; given to the generation of the flower buns to pinch into the type of fish, known as the face of the fish, meaning that even the years have more than one. Nowadays, it is completely based on the owner's interest, sheep, tiger, cow, fish, rabbit, people all kinds of shape of the bun. Per capita, a beast of the flower bun pinch, but also many more to pinch melon, fruit, peaches, plums, lotus, chrysanthemums, plums and other stylized flower buns, embellished with flowers, birds, butterflies, dragons, squirrels. The size of the buns is smaller than before, and they are used as gifts for visiting relatives and friends. After being steamed and colored, these dough figurines look so lifelike that each one of them can be called an excellent handicraft. July 15 to see the face painting, has become a farmer's women a show of dexterity and craftsmanship of the program.