1, enjoy the moon

There has been a custom of enjoying the moon in China since ancient times, and it is recorded in the Book of Rites that "the moon falls at dusk in autumn", that is, worshipping the moon god. In the Zhou dynasty, every mid-autumn night was held to welcome the cold and offer sacrifices to the moon. Set up a big incense table and put on seasonal fruits such as moon cakes, watermelons, apples, plums and grapes, among which moon cakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable.

2. Eat moon cakes

As the saying goes, "August 15th is a full moon, and Mid-Autumn moon cakes are sweet and fragrant". Moon cakes were originally used as sacrifices to the moon god. The word "moon cakes" first appeared in Wu Zimu's Dream of the Liang Lu in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, it was just a cake-shaped food like Linghua cake. Later, people gradually combined the Mid-Autumn Festival with mooncake tasting, which symbolizes family reunion.

3. Sacrifice the moon

Under the moon, put the moon statue in the direction of the moon, and the red candle burns high. The whole family worships the moon in turn, and then the housewife cuts up the reunion moon cake. Cut the people in advance to calculate the number of people in the whole family, at home and in the field, all together, can not cut more or less, the size should be the same.

4. Burn the lamp

The internal combustion candle of Mid-Autumn Night Lantern is tied to a bamboo pole with a rope, hung high on the tile eaves or terrace, or hung in a zigzag or various shapes with small lights at the height of the house, commonly known as "Mid-Autumn Festival on a tree" or "Mid-Autumn Festival vertically".

5. Watch the tide

In addition to enjoying the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival in Zhejiang, tide watching is another Mid-Autumn Festival event. The custom of watching tide in Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history, which was described in detail in Mei Cheng's Fu of Seven Hair in Han Dynasty. After the Han Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival tide watching became more popular. There are also records of watching the tide in Zhu Tinghuan's Supplementing the Past Events of Wulin in Ming Dynasty and Meng Liang Lu by Zi Mu in Song and Wu Dynasties.

6. Go to the moon

In the bright moonlight, people wear gorgeous clothes, travel in groups of three or five, or wander the streets, or lack boats on the Qinhuai River, or go upstairs to watch the Yuet Moon, talking and laughing. In the old days, there was a special prayer for Nanjing people to "walk on the moon": any married woman who had no son would go to the Confucius Temple and then cross a bridge, according to legend, there would be "the joy of a dream bear" (meaning to have a boy).

7. Play with lanterns

Playing lanterns in the Mid-Autumn Festival is mostly concentrated in the south. For example, at the aforementioned Foshan Autumn Festival, there were all kinds of colorful lights: sesame lights, eggshell lights, wood shavings lights, straw lights, fish scales lights, chaff lights, melon seeds lights and flowers and trees lights of birds and animals, which were amazing.