Mid-Autumn Festival custom cartoon

Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Worship Festival. Since ancient times, Mid-Autumn Festival has had folk customs such as offering sacrifices to the moon, enjoying the moon, eating moon cakes, playing with lanterns, enjoying osmanthus and drinking osmanthus wine. It has been circulating for a long time. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a colorful and precious cultural heritage. The full moon is a symbol of people's reunion, a sustenance for missing their hometown and relatives, and hopes for a bumper harvest and happiness.

Mid-Autumn Festival is a relic of ancient celestial worship-the custom of worshipping the moon. At the autumnal equinox, it is an ancient "Mid-Autumn Festival", and the Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the traditional "Mid-Autumn Festival". In traditional culture, the moon and the sun are the same, and these two alternate celestial bodies become the objects of ancestor worship. The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the ancient people's sacrifice to the moon, which is the legacy and derivative of China people's custom of offering sacrifices to the moon. Sacrificing to the moon is a very old custom in China. In fact, it is a ritual activity of the ancients in some places in ancient China to "Moon God". According to research, "Mid-Autumn Festival" was originally set on the day of autumnal equinox in the twenty-four solar terms of the Ganzhi calendar. However, because the days of August in the summer calendar are different every year, there may not be a full moon. Later, the Mid-Autumn Festival moved from the autumnal equinox to the 15th day of August in the summer calendar. The Mid-Autumn Festival has had folk customs such as offering sacrifices to the moon and enjoying it since ancient times, and it has been passed down to this day for a long time.

custom

To the moon.

On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, there is also a special activity called "Walking the Moon". In the bright moonlight, people wear gorgeous clothes, travel in groups of three or five, or stroll the streets, or lack boats on the Qinhuai River, or go upstairs to watch the moonlight, talking and laughing. In Ming Dynasty, there were Moon Tower and Moon Bridge in Nanjing, and Moon Tower under Lion Mountain in Qing Dynasty, all of which were scenic spots for tourists to enjoy the moon. Traveling on Mid-Autumn Festival night to enjoy the moon, Shanghainese call it "walking on the moon". Wu has the custom of walking the three bridges on the moon, that is, traveling in the moonlight, at least three bridges must be crossed (see Jia Qinglu, Volume 8). Shanghai also has this custom (see Yu Yousheng's Travel Notes on Metallurgy in the Seas). The so-called three bridges are obviously the flavor of the city.

Sacrifice the Moon

Sacrificing the moon is a very old custom in China, and it is actually a worship activity of the ancients to the "Moon God". In ancient times, there was a custom of "autumn and dusk". The evening moon is the God of Yue Bai. Since ancient times, in some places in Guangdong, people have the custom of worshipping the moon god (mother moon and moonlight) on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival. In Yue Bai, a big incense table was set up, and the sacrifices included moon cakes, watermelons, apples, red dates, plums and grapes. Under the moon, put the "Luna God" tablet in the direction of the moon, and the red candle burns high. The whole family took turns in Yue Bai to pray. Sacrificing the moon to admire the memory of the moon expresses people's good wishes. As one of the important ceremonies of Mid-Autumn Festival, offering sacrifices to the moon has continued from ancient times to the present, and gradually evolved into a folk activity to appreciate and praise the moon. At the same time, it has become the main form of modern people's longing for reunion and their desire for a better life.

Appreciate the bright full moon

The custom of enjoying the moon comes from offering sacrifices to the moon, and serious sacrifices have become relaxed pleasures. It is said that this night the moon is closest to the earth, and the moon is the largest, roundest and brightest, so there has been a custom of drinking and enjoying the moon since ancient times; The daughter-in-law who goes back to her parents' house will go back and forth to express her happiness and good luck. According to written records, the folk Mid-Autumn Festival started in Wei and Jin Dynasties, but it did not become a custom. In the Tang Dynasty, it was quite popular to enjoy and play with the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Many poets wrote poems about the moon in their masterpieces.

Reach for the moon

Chasing the moon is also a custom of Mid-Autumn Festival. The so-called "chasing the moon" means that after the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the excitement is not over yet. So the next night, many people invited relatives and friends to continue to enjoy the moon and named it "Chasing the Moon". According to the preface of A Qing Chen Zihou's Lingnan Miscellaneous Notes: "Good people in central Guangdong gather in Izayoi in August, waiting for wine and food to enjoy the moon, which is called chasing the moon."

Begging for the moon and shining on it.

In the old society, some women in Dongguan believed that "Yue Lao was the matchmaker". Anyone who has adult men and women at home but no Mr. Right can burn incense and light candles under the moon on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, and ask the old man to fix him up. According to legend, the quiet moonlight on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival can make women pregnant. In some areas, on the Mid-Autumn Festival moonlit night, some infertile women who have been married for a long time will go out to bathe in the moonlight, hoping to have children early, which is called "depending on the moon".

Tidal bore watching

The custom of watching tide in Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history. "I know that the Jade Rabbit is very round, and it has been frosty in September." The message is that the door should be closed and the night tide will stay on the moon. "This is the poem" Watching the Tide on August 15th "written by Su Shi, a great poet in the Song Dynasty. In ancient Zhejiang, besides enjoying the moon, tide watching was another Mid-Autumn Festival activity.