The 15th day of the 8th lunar month is the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. According to the interpretation of the ancient Chinese calendar, August is the second month of autumn, known as "mid-autumn", and the 15th day of the 8th lunar month is in the middle of the mid-autumn, so it is called "Mid-Autumn Festival". The moon is full on the Mid-Autumn Festival, symbolizing the reunion, so it is also called the "reunion festival".
From the seasonal point of view, the Mid-Autumn Festival is the "Autumn Harvest Festival", sowing in spring and planting in summer grains in the fall should be harvested, people in ancient times in this season, drinking and dancing, joyfully celebrating the harvest.
China since ancient times has been in the Mid-Autumn Festival, the custom of the moon festival, the "Book of Rites" recorded in the "autumn sunset," that is, to worship the moon god. According to legend, in the Zhou Dynasty, the ceremony of welcoming the cold and sacrificing the moon was held every Mid-Autumn Night.
Wei-Jin Dynasty, folk began to have the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, but has not yet formed a custom. In the Tang Dynasty, it was quite popular to enjoy and play with the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Ouyang Zhan said in "Chang'an play moon poem preface": "August in the fall, the beginning of the season, the end of the Meng, fifteen in the night, and in the moon. The way of the road, the cold and heat is even, take the number of the moon, the toad is round." In the early Tang Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was officially designated as a holiday.
Tang Dynasty Mid-Autumn Festival "moon worship"
The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival is closely related to the romantic legend of Emperor Xuanzong's visit to the Moon Palace. Legend has it that on the night of August 15 of a certain year, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty in the Palace of the moon festival, the attendant Taoist magic, will be in the hands of the walking stick into the air after the silver bridge, stepped into the Moon Palace, but see the doorway plaque on the book "Guanghan Qingxu of the House", the doorway to the tall cinnamon tree under the white rabbit is pounding pills, the Palace of Chang'e nymphs in the lilting music accompaniment, dancing. Emperor Xuanzong returned from the Moon Palace, ordered people to organize the secretly written down dance music, named "Nishang Yuyi Song". The reason why the Moon Palace is called "Guanghan Palace" is also related to this legend.
Tasting mooncakes while enjoying the moon has gradually become a folkloric symbol of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The mooncake first originated in the Tang Dynasty, as a food for the army to congratulate them. During the reign of Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, General Li Jing was victorious in his conquest of the Xiongnu, and returned home on August 15 in triumph. At that time, a businessman from Turpan offered mooncakes to the Tang Emperor to celebrate his victory. Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty took the gorgeous cake box, took out the cake, pointed to the bright moon in the sky with a smile and said, "I should invite the toad with the Hu cake." After saying this, he distributed the cakes to his ministers to taste them together, and since then there has been the custom of eating cakes and food in the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, the big families would usually set up a big incense case to worship the moon on the Mid-Autumn Festival, round cake, watermelon, apples, grapes and other offerings, which round cake and watermelon is absolutely no less, in the big families, watermelon but also specially cut into a lotus-shaped offerings.
Northern Song Mid-Autumn Festival began to "reunion"
"Mid-Autumn Festival" reference first appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu Zimu "Dream Liang Records": "August 15 Mid-Autumn Festival, the day of the three Autumn Festival just half, so it is called 'Mid-Autumn Festival'. It is called 'Mid-Autumn Festival'."
The Song Dynasty inherited the custom of moon worship in the mid-autumn festival from the Tang Dynasty, but there was also a more elegant activity called "playing with the moon". According to the Northern Song Dynasty's Meng Yuanlao's "Tokyo Dreaming Records," "On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, noble families decorated their platforms and pavilions, and folk competed to occupy the restaurants to play with the moon." At that time, the royal family would also organize "Mid-Autumn Festival Party". The people would not rest early, even the children refused to sleep, "children in the village, playing all night. The night market was so crowded that it was all over the place."
Southern Song Dynasty, "playing with the moon" lively and almost crazy. Wu Zimu wrote a detailed account of the Mid-Autumn Festival night in Lin'an: "This time the golden wind recommended cool, jade dew cool, Dan Gui fragrance, silver toad full of light, princes and grandchildren, the rich and large rooms, all climbed the dangerous building, Linxuan play the moon, or open the wide pavilions, tortoise feasts lined up, qin and seals resound, wine and song, to divine the joy of the night. As for the house of the store, also climbed a small platform, arrange family feasts, group of children, to reward the festival. This night, the sky street trading, until five drums, play the moon tourists, Brahma in the city, to the evening."
The greatest contribution of the Song Dynasty to the Mid-Autumn Festival was to give it the connotation of "reunion". The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival being regarded as the "Reunion Festival" should be in the Northern Song Dynasty. Su Dongpo, a writer of the Northern Song Dynasty, explained the Northern Song people's understanding of the Mid-Autumn Festival in his Song of Songs, "Song of Songs in Water".
Southern Song "mooncake" was born
The origin of the mooncake, the legend originated in the Tang conquest of the Turkic victory, there are merchants in the Western region congratulations to Hu cake, Tang Gaozu lamented that "should be Hu cake invited toad". This is unfounded, Hu cake Han Dynasty has entered the Central Plains, similar to today's naan. The Tang Emperor was merely saying that the roundness of the cake was similar to the moon, and that it had nothing to do with mooncakes.
In fact, to the Southern Song Dynasty, there is a "moon cake", but is a market food, has nothing to do with the Mid-Autumn Festival, and is likely to be steamed. The Southern Song Dynasty, "the old story of Wulin," a book on this record. And, steamed moon cakes are still circulating in Shandong, Henan and other places. Wu Zimu of the Southern Song Dynasty, "Dream Sorghum Records" book, the word "mooncake". But until the Ming Dynasty, only in the "West Lake Excursion Zhi Hui" in the Mid-Autumn Festival to eat moon cakes on the exact record. Ming Dynasty writer Tian Rucheng in the "West Lake Excursion Zhiyu" wrote: "August 15 is called Mid-Autumn Festival, the folk to the moon cake to leave each other, take the meaning of reunion." Ming Dynasty historian Shen Bang in the "Wan Department Miscellany" describes the Beijing Mid-Autumn Mooncakes wrote: "The creation of face cakes to leave each other, the size varies. The cakes were filled with fruit, cleverly named, and there was a cake worth hundreds of dollars." The book also introduces the production process at that time, has reached a high level. Beijing Imperial Palace for the use of the moon cake "from bottom to top diameter feet, weighing two pounds".