202 1 Mid-Autumn Festival is July 15th in the year of the wedding and ugliness of the lunar calendar, and the Gregorian calendar is August 22nd, 20021year.
Every year, the 15th day of July in the lunar calendar is the Mid-Yuan Festival, which mainly worships ancestors. It is the same as the Shangyuan Festival on the 15th day of the first month and the Xiayuan Festival on the 15th of October. But after all, it is not a national holiday, so there will be no holiday.
The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival
The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival should be related to the land worship popular in ancient China. Legend has it that the birthday of the magistrate is on July 15th, which is called the Mid-Yuan Festival, and the magistrate's main duty is to forgive sins for the world. Every year, on the Mid-Yuan Festival, the local officials will open the gates of hell, which is also the day when the deceased ancestors can go home for reunion. Therefore, it is also called Ghost Festival. People should set up Dojo and put steamed buns for the ghosts. On this day, they should worship their ancestors, go to the grave and light lanterns to illuminate the way home for the dead. Taoist temples will also hold grand meetings to cross over the souls of the dead.
What are the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival?
Zhongyuan pudu
From the first day of July to the 30th day of July, some places have the custom of offering sacrifices such as wine, meat, sugar cakes and fruits for the Mid-Autumn Festival, so as to comfort the 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.
offer sacrifices to ancestors
On the Mid-Autumn Festival, many people began to worship their ancestors, so it was also called "July and a half". At this time, the midsummer has passed and the autumn cool has just begun. Folks believe that ancestors will also return home to visit their children and grandchildren at this time, so they need to worship their ancestors. The worship ceremony is usually held in the evening, and the time is limited to July 15th. In the "July 30" ancestor worship, the memorial tablets of the ancestors should be invited out one by one, respectfully put on the dedicated worship table, and then put incense in front of each ancestor's memorial tablet until July 30. When you send it back, you will burn paper, money and clothes, or the temple will also do cross-over rituals. In some areas of Jiangxi and Hunan, which are both sacrificial festivals, the Mid-Autumn Festival is more important than Tomb-Sweeping Day or the Double Ninth Festival.
Sacrifice land
On July 15th, it was also the birthday of a magistrate who forgave sins on earth, so people still worshipped land and crops. Sprinkle the offerings on the fields, burn the paper, and then wrap the five-color paper cut into strips around the ears of crops. You can bless the harvest of crops in autumn.
float a river lantern
People think that the Mid-Autumn Festival is a ghost festival, so we should put up lanterns to celebrate the festival for ghosts. Water and ghosts are both cloudy, which reminds people of the legendary ghost hell. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called a river lantern because it is in the water. Generally, the river lantern is placed with lamps or candles on its base, and it is left floating in rivers, lakes and seas at Mid-Autumn Festival. The purpose of the river lantern is to drown ghosts and other ghosts in Pudu water. However, nowadays, river lanterns have become a happy activity, and those exquisitely made river lanterns are very popular among children and young people.
How to worship ancestors on the Mid-Autumn Festival
The festival of ancestor worship falls on July 15th in the lunar calendar, so it is called "July and a half" for short. At this time, the midsummer has passed and the autumn cool has just begun. Folks believe that ancestors will also return home to visit their children and grandchildren at this time, so they need to worship their ancestors.
When the day of July 15th comes, it is mainly to go to the grave to pay homage to the ancestors, and "press paper" on the grave to tell the ancestors that the tomb has been swept by later generations. Or make a lamp out of paper and burn it in front of the grave, which means that the dead have a bright future. If the ancestors have died for three years, the children should take off their mourning clothes and change into ordinary clothes on this day, commonly known as changing filial piety.
At the time of ancestor worship in July and a half, the memorial tablets of the ancestors should be invited out one by one, respectfully put on the dedicated memorial table, and then put incense in front of each ancestor's memorial tablet for tea and rice three times a day in the morning, noon and fainting until it is returned on July 30. If there are portraits of ancestors, please come out and hang them.
When worshipping, kowtow to each ancestor in the order of seniority and seniority, pray silently, report to the ancestors and ask people to examine their words and deeds this year first, so as to bless the whole family's peace and happiness. I am safe and happy. When returning, burn paper money and clothes, which is called burning coating, or crossing over from Buddhism or Taoism.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is usually held at noon that day. Every family prepares rich dishes, wine and rice. In their respective halls, the table of the Eight Immortals is filled with 24 full-flavored seats, with seven pairs of chopsticks, a pot of wine and seven cups. In the middle, a fruit box is placed. The fruit box is generally carved with hexagonal solid wood, and the plate is also carved into a rectangle with six squares above it, and mushrooms are placed in the squares.
When the banquet is set, the host lights three incense sticks, lights two red candles, lights incense sticks, bows down as an instrument, invites the ancestors to enjoy the sacrificial banquet, and hopes to protect the children and grandchildren's health, peace and prosperity, etc., and stops for permission before burning the gold and silver coins. Only when the golden paper is burned out can the banquet be withdrawn.
On the same day, three sacrifices are offered to the deities and buddhas enshrined in the hall. The so-called three sacrifices mean that one main sacrifice is matched with two kinds of side sacrifices. The main sacrifice is usually a cooked pig's foot with five catties of hooves, and the side sacrifices are usually cooked fish, squid, fish and chicken. For example, there is Guanyin Buddha in the hall, because Guanyin's mother does not eat meat, she often uses fresh fruit to offer sacrifices. Because the gods and buddhas are higher than their ancestors, they can only offer "golden paper", and silver clothes and the like are less valuable and cannot reflect the sincerity of good men and women, so they are not among the offerings.
On the Mid-Autumn Festival, in addition to worshipping the ancestors and worshipping the Buddha, the master also pays homage to the gods of Cuo, Foundation, Kitchen God, Bed Mother, and even the gods of cowshed, stable, sheepfold and pigsty, with five-flavor banquet bowls and silver clothes.