What are the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival?

Mid-Autumn Festival has been celebrated since ancient times as a festival of moon worship, moon viewing, eating mooncakes, playing with lanterns, enjoying osmanthus flowers, drinking osmanthus wine, etc. It has been passed down to the present day and is still going on today. The Mid-Autumn Festival has become a colorful and precious cultural heritage, with the full moon as a sign of reunion, as a token of longing for one's hometown and loved ones, and as a prayer for a good harvest and happiness.

Examples:

Moonwalking

There is also a major feature of the Mid-Autumn Festival, called "moonwalking". Under the bright moonlight, people dressed in fine clothes, three or five companions, or touring the market, or lack of boat Qinhuai River, or climbed to watch the moonlight, talk and laugh. Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty, built in the moon tower, play the moon bridge, the Qing Dynasty, under the Lion Rock, there is a moon building, are travelers "walk the moon" when the moon viewing resort.

Mid-Autumn Festival night out to enjoy the moon, the Shanghai people called "walk the moon". The custom of walking on the moon and walking across three bridges in Wu Di is to walk across at least three bridges while traveling under the moonlight (see Gu Lu's Qing Jia Lu Volume 8). This custom was also practiced in Shanghai (see Jade Squid Sheng's Hai Zuoyou Lu). The so-called "walking across three bridges" is a clear indication of the flavor of doom and gloom.

Moon Sacrifice

Moon Sacrifice is a very ancient custom in China, which is actually a kind of worship activity of the ancient people to the "moon god". In ancient times, there is the custom of "autumn evening moon". The moon is set on the eve of the moon, i.e., to worship the moon god. From ancient times to the present, in some areas of Guangdong, people have the custom of worshipping the moon god (moon goddess, moonlight) in the evening of Mid-Autumn Festival.

To pay homage to the moon, a large incense burner is set up with offerings such as mooncakes, watermelons, apples, jujubes, plums and grapes. Under the moon, the "Moon God" tablet is placed in the direction of the moon, red candles are lit, and the whole family pays homage to the moon in turn, praying for blessings. The moon festival is a way of expressing people's good wishes for the moon and their memories of it.

Moon worship, as one of the important rituals of Mid-Autumn Festival, has continued from ancient times to the present day, gradually evolved into folk activities of moon appreciation and moon glorification, and at the same time has become the main form of modern people's longing for reunion and their good wishes for life.

Moon Appreciation

The custom of Moon Appreciation originated from the Moon Sacrifice, where a serious ritual was transformed into a light-hearted entertainment. It is said that this night the moon is the closest to the earth, the moon is the largest, roundest and brightest, so from ancient times to the present day there is the custom of drinking feasts and enjoying the moon; the daughter-in-law of the bride's family must return to her husband's family on this day, in order to symbolize the perfect, auspicious meaning. Textual records of folk activities of the Mid-Autumn Festival about the beginning of the Wei and Jin dynasties, but not customary. To the Tang Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, playing the moon is quite popular, many poets in the famous poem there are moon poems.

Moon Chasing

Moon Chasing is also a custom of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the so-called "Moon Chasing", that is, after the 15th day of the eighth month of the Lunar Calendar, the Xing is not yet finished, so the next night, many people invited friends and family to continue to enjoy the moon, known as the "Moon Chasing". Chasing the Moon". According to the Qing dynasty Chen Zihou "Lingnan miscellaneous notes" preface cloud: "good people in Guangdong, in the August 16th night, set family and friends to cure wine and food to enjoy the moon, called the chase moon."

Begging the Moon

Old Dongguan, some women believe that "the old man as a matchmaker", where there is an adult man and woman at home without a man of interest, to facilitate the Mid-Autumn Festival night at three o'clock in the evening, burning incense and candles under the moon, begging the old man of the moon for its matchmaking. Legend has it that on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moonlight can make women pregnant. In some areas, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Moon, some women who have been married for a long time and are infertile will go out of their homes and bathe in the moonlight in the hope of giving birth to a child, which is called "shining the moon".

Tide watching

The custom of watching the tide in the Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history. The Jade Rabbit is very round, and the frosty winds are already cold in September. I'd like to say that I'm not going to be able to get the key to the door, but I'd like to see the tide in the moon." This is a poem written by Su Shi, a great poet of the Song Dynasty, "Watching the Tide on August 15th". In ancient times, in addition to the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, tide watching was another Mid-Autumn event in Zhejiang.

Eating mooncakes

Mooncakes, also known as moon balls, harvest cakes, palace cakes, reunion cakes, etc., were ancient Mid-Autumn offerings to the moon god. Mooncakes were initially used as offerings to the moon god, and then people gradually took the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival moon viewing and tasting mooncakes as a great symbol of family reunion. Mooncakes symbolize reunion, and people treat them as festive food, offering them to the moon and giving them to friends and relatives. To this day, eating mooncakes has been a necessary custom of the Mid-Autumn Festival in all parts of China, north and south, and people eat mooncakes on Mid-Autumn Day to show that they are "reunited".

Festival Alias

According to the Chinese calendar, the eighth month of the lunar calendar is in the middle of autumn, the second month of autumn, known as "mid-autumn", and the fifteenth day of the eighth month is in "mid-autumn", so it is called "Mid-Autumn Festival".

The first month of August is the second month of autumn, and the fifteenth day of the eighth month is in the middle of the month.

The Mid-Autumn Festival has many aliases: In ancient times, there was the activity of moon worship at the autumnal equinox, so it was called "Moon Festival" or "Moon Festival". Because the festival is held on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, it is called "August Festival" and "August Half"; because the main activities of the Mid-Autumn Festival are centered around the "moon", it is also commonly known as the "Moon Festival". The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the "Moon Festival"; the moon at the Mid-Autumn Festival is full, symbolizing reunion, and is therefore also known as the "Reunion Festival".

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the "Reunion Festival" and the "Daughter's Festival" because of the moon's success and the reunion of family members and married daughters. In the Guangfu area, the Mid-Autumn Festival is commonly known as the "Moon Festival". In mid-autumn, all kinds of fruits and melons are ripe and on the market, so it is called "Fruit Festival". It is also known as the "Pumpkin Festival" among the Dong ethnic group and the "Housheng Festival" among the Mulao ethnic group.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Moon Festival. The earliest record of the festival is found in the literature of the Ming Dynasty. The West Lake Tourism Zhiyu said: "August 15 is called Mid-Autumn Festival, the folk with moon cakes to send each other, take the meaning of reunion." The Imperial Capital Scenic Spectacular" also said: "August 15 moon festival, the cake must be round, divided into melons must be teeth wrong, petals carved like a lotus. ...... its women return to the Ning, is the day will return to the husband's home, said the reunion festival."