Origin

There are many opinions about the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The word Mid-Autumn Festival was first seen in "Book of Rites". "Book of Rites·Yue Ling" says: "The moon of Mid-Autumn is used to nourish the elderly and eat rice porridge."

One theory is that it originated from the sacrifices of ancient emperors. Activity. The "Book of Rites" records: "The emperor faces the sun in spring and the moon in autumn." The eclipse moon is a sacrifice to the moon, which shows that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, emperors had begun to worship and worship the moon. Later, noble officials and literati also followed suit, and gradually spread to the people.

Second, the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival is related to agricultural production. Autumn is the harvest season. The explanation of the word "Autumn" is: "Autumn is when the crops are mature[1]". During the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, crops and various fruits mature one after another. In order to celebrate the harvest and express their joy, farmers use the "Mid-Autumn Festival" as a festival. "Mid-Autumn Festival" means the middle of autumn. The eighth month of the lunar calendar is the middle month of autumn, and the 15th is the middle day of this month. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival may be a custom inherited from the ancients' "Autumn Announcement".

Some historians have also pointed out that the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival should be the 15th day of August in the 13th year of Daye during the Tang Dynasty. Pei Ji of the Tang Dynasty successfully invented the moon cake based on the idea of ??the full moon and spread it widely in the army. Military pay successfully solved the military food problem caused by absorbing a large number of anti-Sui rebels.

Traditional activities

Moon worship, moon appreciation, and moon worship

"Book of Rites" has long recorded that "Autumn Twilight Xiyue" means worshiping the moon. Gods, at this time, they will hold ceremonies to welcome the cold, worship the moon, and set up incense tables. By the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night would be held to welcome the cold and worship the moon. Set up a large incense table and place moon cakes, watermelon, apples, dates, plums, grapes and other sacrifices. Among them, moon cakes and watermelon are absolutely indispensable, and the watermelon must be cut into lotus shapes. Under the moon, the moon statue is placed in the direction of the moon, with red candles burning high. The whole family worships the moon in turn, and then the housewife cuts the reunion moon cakes. The person who cuts the food must calculate in advance how many people are in the family. Those who are at home and those who are out of town must be counted together. They cannot cut more or less, and the sizes must be the same. Among ethnic minorities, the custom of worshiping the moon is also popular.

According to legend, Wu Yan, an ugly girl from the ancient Qi State, worshiped the moon devoutly when she was a child. When she grew up, she entered the palace with outstanding moral character, but she was not favored. On August 15th of a certain year, the emperor saw her under the moonlight while admiring the moon. He thought she was beautiful and outstanding, so he made her his queen. This is how the Mid-Autumn Festival came to worship the moon. In the middle of the moon, Chang'e is famous for her beauty, so the girl worships the moon and wishes that she "looks like Chang'e and has a face like the bright moon." The Dai people of Yunnan also have a popular custom of "moon worship" on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The custom of admiring the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival was very popular in the Tang Dynasty, and many poets included verses praising the moon in their famous works. In the Song Dynasty, the custom of admiring the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival became even more popular. On this day, "families would decorate their pavilions, and people would occupy restaurants to watch the moon." In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the activities of worshiping and appreciating the moon were more extensive among the court and the people. Many ancient monuments such as "Moon Worship Altar", "Moon Worship Pavilion" and "Moon Watching Tower" remain in various parts of China. Literati and officials were particularly fond of admiring the moon. They climbed up buildings to admire the moon or went boating to enjoy it. They drank wine and wrote poems, leaving behind many well-known masterpieces that will last through the ages. For example, Du Fu's "Moon on the Fifteenth Night of August" uses the fifteen bright moons symbolizing reunion to reflect his thoughts of wandering in a foreign land; Su Shi, a great writer in the Song Dynasty, drank till the end of the Mid-Autumn Festival and got drunk and wrote "Shui Diao Ge Tou", using the roundness and waning of the moon to represent people. The clutch. To this day, sitting together as a family and enjoying the beautiful scenery of the bright moon is still one of the essential activities during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Tide watching

In ancient times, besides admiring the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, tide watching was another Mid-Autumn event. The custom of watching the tide during the Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history, and it was described in detail in Meicheng's "Qifa" in the Han Dynasty. After the Han Dynasty, the custom of watching tides during the Mid-Autumn Festival became even more popular. There are also records of tide watching in Zhu Tinghuan's "Supplement to the Old Wulin Stories" of the Ming Dynasty and "Mengliang Lu" written by Wu Zimu of the Song Dynasty.

Lighting lanterns

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, there is a custom of lighting lanterns to help with the moonlight. Today, there is still a custom in Huguang area of ??stacking tiles on a tower and lighting lanterns on it. In the Jiangnan area, there is a custom of making light boats. In modern times, the custom of lighting lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival has become more popular. An article written by Zhou Yunjin and He Xiangfei in "Talking about Seasonal Events in Leisure" said: "Lanterns are the most popular in Guangdong. Every family uses bamboo strips to tie lanterns ten days before the festival. They make lanterns in the shape of fruits, birds, animals, fish and insects. And the words "Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival" are painted on colored paper in various colors.

The Mid-Autumn night lanterns have internal burning candles tied to bamboo poles with ropes, and are erected high on the eaves or terraces, or small lanterns are built into Chinese characters or various shapes and hung high in the house. It is commonly known as the "Tree Mid-Autumn Festival" or "Upright Mid-Autumn Festival". Wealthy families would hang lanterns that could be several feet high, and their families would gather under the lanterns to drink and have fun. Ordinary people would erect a flagpole and two lanterns to enjoy themselves. The lights all over the city are like a glass world. "It seems that the custom of lighting lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival has been second only to the Lantern Festival since ancient times.

Riddles

Many lanterns are hung in public places on the night of the full moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival. People gather together and guess the riddles written on the lanterns. Because it is a favorite activity of most young men and women, and stories of love are also spread in these activities, guessing the riddles on the Mid-Autumn Festival has also been derived as a form of love between men and women.

Eating mooncakes

Appreciating the moon and eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival are essential customs for celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival in various parts of China. As the saying goes: "August and fifteenth are full, Mid-Autumn mooncakes" "Fragrant and sweet". The term mooncake originated from Wu Zimu's "Meng Liang Lu" in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, it was just a snack food. Later, people gradually combined moon appreciation with moon cakes, which symbolized family reunion and expressed their thoughts. At the same time , Moon cakes are also an important gift for friends to connect with each other during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

There is also a custom of gambling in Xiamen, Fujian, and cake gambling is listed as a national intangible cultural heritage item.

Appreciating osmanthus and drinking osmanthus wine

People often eat moon cakes to enjoy osmanthus during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and eat various foods made from osmanthus, with cakes and candies being the most common.

Mid-Autumn Festival. At night, looking up at the sweet osmanthus in the moon, smelling the fragrance of osmanthus, drinking a glass of osmanthus honey wine, and celebrating the sweetness of the family have become a beautiful enjoyment in modern times. In modern times, people often drink red wine instead. >

Playing with lanterns

There is no large-scale lantern festival like the Lantern Festival during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Playing with lanterns is mainly carried out among families and children. As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, "Wulin Old Things" recorded the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival. , there is an activity of floating "a little red" lantern in the river. Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns are mostly concentrated in the south. For example, at the Foshan Autumn Color Festival, there are various kinds of lanterns: sesame lanterns and eggshell lanterns. , wood shavings lanterns, straw lanterns, fish scale lanterns, chaff lanterns, melon seed lanterns and bird and animal flower tree lanterns, etc.

In Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, tree Mid-Autumn Festival activities are held on the Mid-Autumn Festival, and trees are also used as decorations. "Erect" means to put the lanterns up high, with the help of their parents, the children use bamboo paper to tie up rabbit lanterns, carambola lanterns or square lanterns, hang them horizontally on short poles, and then put them up on high poles. When the lights are up, the lights shine, adding another scene to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Children often compete with each other to see who can put up the tallest, most elaborate lanterns. There are also sky lanterns, which are tied into large shapes with paper. There are candles burning under the lamps, and the heat rises, making the lamps fly in the air, causing people to laugh and chase. In addition, there are various lanterns carried by children playing under the moon.

In Nanning, Guangxi, In addition to various lanterns tied with paper and bamboo for children to play with, there are also very simple grapefruit lanterns, pumpkin lanterns, and orange lanterns. The so-called grapefruit lanterns are made by hollowing out a grapefruit, carving a simple pattern, putting it on a string, and lighting a candle inside. Pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns are also made by removing the flesh. Although simple, they are easy to make and are very popular. Some children in Guangxi also float grapefruit lanterns into the river.

Guangxi. There is a simple household autumn lantern, which is made of six circles of bamboo strips, covered with white gauze paper on the outside, and a candle inserted inside. Burning Tower

The game of burning tile lamps (also known as burning flower tower, burning tile tower and burning fan tower) is widely spread in the south. For example, Volume 5 of "China National Customs" records: Jiangxi "On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, ordinary children pick up tiles in the wild and pile them into a round tower with many holes. At dusk, they burn them in a firewood tower under the bright moon. Once the tiles are red-hot , then pour kerosene on the fire and add fuel to the fire. In an instant, the fields are as red as the sun, and it shines like daylight until late at night, when no one is watching. This is called burning a tile lamp. The tile-burning pagoda in Chaozhou, Guangdong is also a hollow pagoda built with bricks and tiles, filled with branches and set on fire. At the same time, smoke piles are also burned, which is to pile firewood into piles and burn them after the moon worship. The burning of Fan Pagoda in the Guangxi border area is similar to this activity, but folklore is to commemorate the heroic battle of Liu Yongfu, a famous anti-French general in the Qing Dynasty, who burned the Fan ghosts (French invaders) who fled into the tower.

There is also a "tazai burning" activity in Jinjiang, Fujian.

It is said that this custom is related to the righteous act of resisting Yuan soldiers. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, it carried out bloody rule over the Han people, so the Han people resisted unyieldingly. Various places organized riots on the Mid-Autumn Festival and lit fires on the top of the pagoda as a sign. Similar to the Fenghuo Tower lighting uprising, although this kind of resistance was suppressed, the custom of burning pagodas remained.