Why do Chaoshan people fold flower baskets and worship the moon on Mid-Autumn Festival?

Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as "Mid-Autumn Festival", "Reunion Festival" and "August Festival". According to the "state language - Zhou language", China's three generations when there is "autumn sunset moon" custom. The moon festival is to worship the moon god. In the Zhou Dynasty, every mid-autumn night to welcome the cold and moon sacrifice. The Rites of the Zhou contained: "In mid-spring, the daytime, hit the soil drums blowing "Yuya" to welcome the summer; in mid-autumn night, to welcome the cold as well." The Book of Rites also reads, "The Son of Heaven will face the sun in the spring and the moon in the fall. The morning sun to the morning, the evening moon to the evening." According to the custom, the moon is generally held on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the emperors have followed this custom. Jin Dynasty, there is a mid-autumn appreciation of the moon, but did not become a habit. To the Tang Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, playing with the moon, quite popular. Ouyang Zhan said in the preface of Chang'an Playing with the Moon Poem: "August in the fall, the beginning of the season, the end of the Meng, fifteen at night, and the middle of the month. Audit of the road, the cold and heat evenly, take the number of months, the toad round." Minghuang miscellany, "Dai:" the night of August 15, Ye Jingneng invited Emperor Tang to visit the Moon Palace, before leaving, Ye told him to put on a leather jacket. To the moon palace, he was really cold and difficult to support, Ye gave him two pills of elixir to support." To the Song Dynasty, only the 15th of August, officially designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Tokyo Dreaming Records: "before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the store that sells new wine, the noble family decorative platforms and pavilions, the people's families compete to occupy the restaurant to play the moon, music and songs heard thousands of miles away, playful even sat until dawn." Mooncakes are classified as a festive delicacy, Su Dongpo has "small cakes such as chewing the moon, there are crispy and syrup" of the best lines. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival activities were more colorful: the folk had the act of enjoying the moon, or carrying Pusaetha lakes and seas, along the tour until dawn. On top of the Su Causeway, they were singing songs together, which was no different from the daytime. And in the river cast ten thousand "small point red" (small sheepskin lamp) bright as stars, very impressive. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, many places have also risen to worship the moon god, put the sky lanterns, tree Mid-Autumn Festival, point lighthouse and other customs.

Why worship the Moon Goddess on Mid-Autumn Festival? The legend goes like this:

In ancient times, ten suns appeared in the sky, so hot that people died, the forest burned, the river dried up, the world suffered a disaster. The Jade Emperor sent the great god Hou Yi to the earth to deal with the matter after the monarch Yao Di's ritual request. The ten suns, all sons of the Heavenly Emperor, had been ordered to produce one sun per day, but they were at odds with each other and rose together every day at dawn. After Hou Yi came down to earth, he asked them to abide by the rules of heaven, and only one sun came out a day. However, they didn't take Hou Yi seriously and didn't listen to him. Hou Yi couldn't stand it anymore, so he took his bow and drew his arrows, and "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh," he shot down nine suns at once. The remaining sun turned pale with fear and fled to the west. When the emperor learned that his nine sons had been killed, he was furious and ordered Hou Yi and his wife not to return to Heaven. Chang'e was so angry that she blamed her husband for being so reckless, offending the Emperor and getting her into trouble. Later, she went to steal the immortality pill, want to ascend to heaven again; but the gods in the sky found out that Chang E betrayed her husband, after stealing the immortality pill, have accused her, despise her; Chang E therefore do not dare to go up to the sky, and instead run to the cold moon palace. The emperor did not stop there, so he turned her into a rabbit and made her pound medicine for the gods every month. People worship the moon lady, is to remember Hou Yi had for the folk to eliminate the great harm.