What festival is the Mid-Autumn Festival?
The Mid-Autumn Festival is also called Ghost Festival, July 30, and a few areas are also called Dead Day. On October 15th, the Lunar New Year Festival is also a cold food festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival, which commemorates the ancient sages on July 15th every year, is a traditional festival in China. Together with the Cold Food Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day, it is called the three major ghost festivals in ancient China. Every year, sacrificial activities are mainly held on July 15th of the lunar calendar, but the time is not fixed. In southern China, people also have the tradition of offering sacrifices on July 14th. In some places, ancestor worship ceremonies began in early July, bringing ancestors home at night, and then offering them three meals a day until the end of July.
According to legend, on the first day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the ghost gate will be opened, and the ghosts of the underworld will be chartered by Yan Luowang to return to the dead to accept the sacrifices of future generations, while the ghosts who have no sacrifices will wander around the world looking for food. Folk belief is that ancestors worship sacrifices, and believe that ancestors will return to their homes in the dead to visit their descendants during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Therefore, people will sacrifice their ancestors on the Mid-Autumn Festival and turn over the dead.
What is the Mid-Autumn Festival for?
offer sacrifices to ancestors
Sacrifice to ancestors, folk beliefs believe that ancestors will also return home to visit their descendants at this time, so it is necessary to worship ancestors, but the sacrifice activities are generally carried out before the end of July in the lunar calendar, not limited to a specific day. In some areas, through certain ceremonies, ancestors' souls are taken home at night, and tea and rice are served three times a day in the morning, noon and dusk until July 30. When returning, burning paper money and clothes is called burning "coating", or it is a Buddhist or Taoist thing. In some areas of Jiangxi and Hunan, the Mid-Autumn Festival is more important than the Qingming Festival or the Double Ninth Festival.
float a river lantern
Generally, a river lantern is a lamp or candle placed on the base, and it is placed in rivers, lakes and seas at Mid-Autumn Festival, allowing it to float, in order to ferry drowning ghosts and other ghosts in the water. The seventh month of the lunar calendar is commonly known as "Ghost Moon", and the day of Ghost Festival is the heaviest day of yin. There are also many taboos about the Mid-Autumn Festival among the people, so don't violate them in daily life.
Zhongyuan pudu
On the Mid-Autumn Festival, many people will hold sacrificial activities with wine, meat, sugar cakes, fruits and other sacrifices between the first day of July and the 30th day of July in the lunar calendar, in order to comfort many ghosts who are playing in the world and pray for their own peace and success throughout the year. Those who are more solemn even invite monks and Taoists to recite the scriptures. During this period, some people will invite Buddha statues such as Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and Mu Lian Zun to place high platforms, or invite artists to play Zhong Kui, the exorcist (some of them invite artists to manipulate Zhong Kui's puppet), so as to eliminate the rage of the dead.
It is said that July and a half coincides with the alternation of summer and autumn. At this time, it is precisely the node where the yin and yang alternate between heaven and earth. The yang is flourishing and declining, and the yin is appearing. On this day, the underground palace opens the door of hell and releases ghosts, so the activities of offering sacrifices to ghosts are generally carried out. It is also said in later generations that the whole July of the lunar calendar should be a "Ghost Festival". On the first day of the seventh lunar month, the King of Yan opens the ghost gate and releases the ghost to the dead for food and enjoys people's offerings. On the last day of July, the ghost gate is closed again, and the ghosts have to return to the underworld.
burn paper money for the dead
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, burning paper is the most prominent among the folk beliefs. According to legend, paper in the dead is money in the underworld, and people burn paper to give money to their deceased ancestors and relatives. Usually, when you burn paper on the grave, you should leave a few pieces and burn them at the crossroads. The purpose is to give some alms to the wild ghosts who can return to Youjia, so that they will not rob their ancestors again.
Incense burning and cannon burning
Every night on July 14th or 15th, we burn incense and firecrackers outside the door and "burn bags" (also called "recommended bags").
Pray for a bumper harvest
Offering sacrifices on the Mid-Autumn Festival is often associated with wishing for a bumper harvest. On the night of shi gu, every household should burn incense in front of their house to wish the rice a bumper harvest, and put incense sticks on the ground. This is called "planting rice" (transplanting rice), and the more you insert, the better, which symbolizes the bumper harvest of rice in autumn.
What to eat on the Mid-Autumn Festival?
Eat steamed buns, ducks, simple tea and rice, and rice flour on the Mid-Autumn Festival. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, Cantonese people have the custom of eating seto flour. Eating seto flour on the Mid-Autumn Festival means a long time and a long life. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the name of Taoism, which is commonly known as the ancestor worship festival on July 30 and July 14, and Buddhism is called the Yulanben Festival. Festival customs mainly include offering sacrifices to ancestors, setting off river lanterns, offering sacrifices to the dead, burning paper ingots and offering sacrifices to the land.
What day is the Mid-Autumn Festival?
The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month is the Mid-Autumn Festival, commonly known as Ghost Festival and July 30. Buddhism is called the Bonin Festival, the day when the Han people sacrificed their ancestors. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as shi gu, Ghost Festival, Bonin Festival, Solitary Festival, Local Official Festival, July and a half, ancestor worship festival, and July and a half.