What is the special significance of the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival?

The Mid-Autumn Festival is full of poetry because of the wonderful moonlight. Under the moon, it is the best time for young men and women to find spouses, so it is also a festival to pursue love. Young men and women dance and play under the moon, and when they meet the right person, they can become spouses. In modern times, this ancient custom still exists and is full of interest.

Burning pagoda lamp

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there was a folk custom of burning lanterns on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns are different from Lantern Festival lanterns. Pagoda lights are lit on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, which is mainly popular in the south. Pagoda lamp is that the children in the village pick up rubble and build a pagoda-shaped lamp. In the Qing Dynasty, villagers in Suzhou used tiles to build a seven-level pagoda in the wild. In the middle of the tower is the Tibetan king, surrounded by lights, which are called "tower lights". Guangzhou children burn "Fanta lamps" and exchange them with broken tiles; There is also a pomelo peel lamp, carved with red pomelo peel, with a glass lamp in the middle, glowing red.

Throw handkerchiefs to attract relatives

In some areas of Fujian Province, there is a custom of throwing handkerchiefs on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival to attract relatives. That night, colorful platforms were set up in the square, decorated in the shape of the Moon Palace, and jade rabbits and osmanthus trees were also set up. Some unmarried girls dress up as Chang 'e. After celebrating the song and dance, the girls threw handkerchiefs embroidered with different colors at the audience. If the handkerchief received by the audience is the same color as the handkerchief in Chang 'e's hand, they can go on stage to receive the prize. When some unmarried boys return handkerchiefs, Chang 'e can give them rings if she likes them. From then on, the two sides can be friends, and all's well that ends well.

Beg for the moon, shine on it and climb 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".

Steal vegetables and beg for lang.

In Taiwan Province Province, unmarried women have the custom of "stealing vegetables to beg for husbands" on the Mid-Autumn Festival night. The beautifully decorated woman stepped on the moonlight and stole onions and vegetables from other people's gardens. After stealing them, it indicates that she will meet the only thrill. Therefore, Taiwan Province Province has "stealing onions and marrying a good husband; The proverb "steal vegetables and marry a good husband".

Stealing melons and praying for children

In Hengyang, Hunan Province, there is a saying, "On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, melons are delivered". Feng lived in his original place, married a woman who had been infertile for many years, and relatives and friends entrusted people to send melons. A few days ago, he stole a melon in the garden, so that the owner didn't know it, and painted it with color. His clothes were wrapped around it and he became a human figure. Give people who are good at it a long life, "beating gongs and firecrackers and sending them to their homes." Older people put wax gourd on the bed and watch the sun under the crack of the door. As you sow, you reap. Those who suffer from melons hold a grand banquet to entertain them, if it happens again. When a woman gets a melon, she will cut it off. As the saying goes, stories are the best. " In Hengyang, whoever is married and has no children in the village, "as long as the popularity is good, someone in the village will give them a gift."

In other parts of Hunan, there is also the custom of sending melons to children. Similar to Hengyang, on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, while the master is not at home to enjoy the moon, good neighbors secretly send their children for him. The person who sends the child must be someone who already has a child. They first selected the melon wheel of the worst family in the village, stole a big wax gourd from the garden, painted the doll's face on the melon, and then inserted a small bamboo tube five inches long into the belly of the wax gourd, and filled it with water along the bamboo tube until it was full. The sender hides the wax gourd in the owner's bed, waits for the owner to go back to his room to sleep, and pulls the quilt by hand. When the wax gourd doll moves, water will flow out along the bamboo tube, just like a child wetting the bed. People who throw melons curse when they get up early in the morning. It is said that the more fierce the curse, the stronger the dolls will be in the future. If you have a baby in the second year, you should worship the giver "michel platini" and "dopted mother".

In Guizhou, there is also the custom of stealing melons and giving them away. When you steal melons at night, you deliberately let the stolen people know, so that you can get a scolding. The uglier the curse, the better. After the melon is stolen, you should dress it, draw eyebrows, pretend to be a child, beat gongs and drums, carry it with bamboo tools, and send it to a childless family. The person who receives the melon must invite the person who sends the melon to eat a moon cake, then sleep with the melon for one night and cook it the next morning, thinking that they can get pregnant from now on.

In Shexian County, Anhui Province, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, adults let children's melons or mother-in-law taro brought by their mothers be put into the quilts of newlyweds, making the mattresses extremely dirty. In this way, the sender is represented. There is a poem that says, "It's beautiful to send a child to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Guading taro is always suitable for men. Innocent people cherish HongLing's quilt the most. It's a pity to drag it with water.

Mid-Autumn Festival cake

In Xiamen, Fujian, whenever the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, in the hazy night of Xiamen, the sweet jingle of dice hitting porcelain bowls will be heard in the streets and alleys. The "Bo Cake" in Xiamen is also called "Bo Mid-Autumn Cake" and "Expo Cake". The formation of this custom is related to the national hero Zheng Chenggong. It is said that Zheng Chenggong was stationed in Xiamen more than 300 years ago. Every August, at the full moon of 15, soldiers full of anti-Qing and heroic spirit will inevitably miss home. In order to alleviate the soldiers' yearning for their relatives in their hometown during the festival, Hong Xu, a subordinate of Zheng Chenggong, invented a cake sharing game to let the soldiers enjoy moon cakes. Zheng Chenggong personally approved that from the lunar calendar 13 to 18, the army will watch moon cakes in turn on the basis of single and double days, for a total of six nights. This unique game gradually spread and improved among the people and became an interesting folk activity. In the early years, Bo Zhuangyuan cakes mostly paid for one or two moon cakes for relatives and friends or sworn brothers and sisters. Whoever won the "first prize" with Bo will give everyone a gift next Mid-Autumn Festival. Some of them have boys to send to two meetings. In this way, the number of cakes is increasing year by year, and we have to separate two independent groups. Generally, the family is presided over by the elders, and once or twice a year, the whole family forms a circle to blog.

Hakka custom

Hakka people's custom of eating moon cakes and enjoying the moon in Mid-Autumn Festival is roughly the same as that in other parts of the country. Hakkas call August Festival or August and a half.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival when the moon is full, Hakkas will put moon cakes, peanuts, grapefruit and other fruits in the yard, on the balcony, or where the moon rises in front of their houses to prepare for the "Yue Bai" activities.

After the worship, the whole family enjoyed the moon together and ate out. Watching the moon is an adult's business. Children generally don't just sit there and enjoy the moon, but chase and play in the bright moonlight. This is their paradise. And the food is a little particular. Parents often let everyone eat these sacrifices to the moon god first. In China's sacrificial culture, there is a tradition that after the gods enjoy it, the sacrifices are often divided, thus ending the whole sacrificial ceremony. In the process of sharing food, on the one hand, we accepted the blessing of the moon god, on the other hand, we also fulfilled the traditional sacrificial culture. Meixian people say that eating these sacrifices is more "good" and blessed, and it will be more auspicious.

In Meizhou, in addition to the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival food with universal significance, pomelo is an essential holiday food, and its varieties include golden pomelo (Shatian pomelo), honey pomelo or crystal pomelo. And eating grapefruit also has certain significance. "Like cutting grapefruit is called' killing grapefruit', which means exorcism. Some people also say that peeling grapefruit skin is' peeling ghost skin', which reflects the desire to exorcise evil spirits and eliminate disasters. "

In addition to ordinary moon cakes, there are "five-kernel moon cakes" in Hakka areas, and there is also a round cake made of glutinous rice flour and sugar. Although the social economy continues to progress, Hakka people have been inheriting the traditional food culture and developing the folk food culture, while the heritage of the Central Plains remains unchanged.

Take the moon and three bridges for example.

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 and burn incense.

The customs of Mid-Autumn Festival in Shanghai include offering sacrifices to the moon and burning incense. When the moon is sacrificed, when the moon rises, an open-air case is set up, which contains moon cakes, melons and fruits, edamame, taro, lotus roots and other foods, as well as a map of the Jade Rabbit Moon Palace. In ancient times, the moon belonged to Yin. In Yue Bai, women worship first, and men worship later. Some people say that "men are not Yue Bai". After Yue Bai, the family had a reunion dinner and a monthly meal. When a woman goes back to her mother's house to stay temporarily, she must go back to her husband's house on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, because this is because of the reunion festival. Traveling on Mid-Autumn Festival night to enjoy the moon, Shanghainese call it "walking on the moon". A night outing with women is called "stepping on the moon". Lujiashi Bridge outside Xiaodongmen, Shanghai, the reflection of the bright moon rippling in the water under the bridge forms a wonderful contrast with the bright moon in the sky. Therefore, tourists are weaving in the Mid-Autumn Festival night, scrambling to watch. This "Liang Shi jathyapple" is very famous in Shanghai, and it is called one of the "Eight Scenes of Shanghai".

There is also the custom of burning incense and fighting among the people in Shanghai. The so-called fragrant barrel, also called fragrant barrel, is made by a shop that binds and binds paper. It is square, big and small, and the big one is about two feet wide in a week. Candles are wrapped in tulle silk, painted with pictures of pavilions and pavilions of the Moon Palace, and some of them are woven with thread incense, and decorated with paper-bound Longmen Kuixing and colorful flags. In Shanghai, the scene of burning incense and closing the door in the Mid-Autumn Festival is the most prosperous in Nanyuan. In addition, on the banks of many bridges inside and outside the city, special large incense barrels are lit.