The traditional folk activities of Mid-Autumn Festival are generally offering sacrifices and enjoying the moon. Out of primitive worship of nature, the custom of offering sacrifices to the moon has long been popular in China, and the activities of offering sacrifices to the moon are recorded in the Book of Rites. During the Han and Wei Dynasties, Yue Bai had the factors of appreciating and offering sacrifices to the moon, which can be seen from the literary works of "Chanting about the Moon". The Mid-Autumn Festival is the right time to enjoy the moon. Because of the frost and snow in winter and the biting cold, it is not advisable to stay under the moon for a long time. In summer, it is rainy and foggy, and Yue Hui is unknown; It rains repeatedly in spring, with high air humidity and poor visibility. Only in autumn, the sky is crisp, the blue sky is like washing, and a full moon is in the sky, such as a silver plate with jade rings hanging high. This is the best time to enjoy the moon. On this day, people enjoy the moon, which is the roundest, brightest and most beautiful, and it is also easy to arouse people's reverie. When people look at the moon like a jade plate, they naturally associate it with family reunion. People who are alone in a foreign land will naturally look at the bright moon as a mirror, place their thoughts on their loved ones in their hometown, and "wish people a long time and travel thousands of miles." Therefore, people also call Mid-Autumn Festival "Reunion Festival".
Moon worshipper
The Mid-Autumn Festival custom in Chaoshan area has unique local characteristics. There is an old saying: "Men don't look at the moon, and women don't worship the stove." When women are in Yue Bai, men will make friends, go to the balcony or climb mountains, set tea sets, boil water and make tea, and enjoy the moon while tasting moon cakes.
Sacrifice the moon and enjoy it.
The main folk activities of Mid-Autumn Festival are offering sacrifices and enjoying the moon. Out of primitive worship of nature, the custom of offering sacrifices to the moon has long been popular in China, and the activities of offering sacrifices to the moon are recorded in the Book of Rites. During the Han and Wei Dynasties, Yue Bai had the factors of appreciating and offering sacrifices to the moon, which can be seen from the literary works of "Chanting about the Moon". The Mid-Autumn Festival is the right time to enjoy the moon. Because of the frost and snow in winter and the biting cold, it is not advisable to stay under the moon for a long time. In summer, it is rainy and foggy, and Yue Hui is unknown; It rains repeatedly in spring, with high air humidity and poor visibility. Only in autumn, the sky is crisp, the blue sky is like washing, and a full moon is in the sky, such as a silver plate with jade rings hanging high. This is the best time to enjoy the moon. On this day, people enjoy the moon, which is the roundest, brightest and most beautiful, and it is also easy to arouse people's reverie. When people look at the moon like a jade plate, they naturally associate it with family reunion. People who are alone in a foreign land will naturally look at the bright moon as a mirror, place their thoughts on their loved ones in their hometown, and "wish people a long time and travel thousands of miles." Therefore, people also call Mid-Autumn Festival "Reunion Festival". The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming. Housewives are busy grinding glutinous rice into powder, then mixing it with white syrup and stirring it evenly, and then pressing it into hollow parts with wooden buns. When you press it hard, it will become pieces of "moon cakes" with different shapes and sizes. The pattern of "moon cakes" is beautiful and white as snow. Some moon cakes in the shape of animals make children fondle them. In addition, there is a peach-shaped "sweet bean peach", which is fried with peanuts and kneaded with maltose, which is particularly crisp. When the night of March 5 comes and the Jade Rabbit rises, people put the Eight Immortals Table in the middle of the yard, and then tie an arch on the Eight Immortals Table with two sugar cane, which is called the Moon Palace Gate. When offering sacrifices to the moon, children are often asked to provide newly bought stationery-pens, textbooks and schoolbags. And pray for "Mother Moon" to bless her children to be smart and get excellent grades. And pinch a little incense ash, carefully wrap it in red paper, and then match it with "well water" (the water just pumped from the well, the bucket can't touch the well when drawing water), saying that this is the "elixir" given by "Moon Mother", which can make people smart and healthy. Just as the women set out to worship, the men made an appointment with three or five friends, climbed high to look at the moon, put Chaoshan tea ware on the balcony, lit a fire, and enjoyed tea and the moon.
County annals record
Chenghai county records: Mid-Autumn Festival, every household presents moon cakes to each other. At the feast of enjoying the moon, you must eat cooked taro and peel it off, which is called "skinning ghosts". People also predict the sunny or cloudy days of the Lantern Festival. As the proverb goes, "Clouds cover the autumn moon, and rain sprinkles the Lantern Festival."
Burning towers and chimneys
There is also an interesting custom in Chaoshan Mid-Autumn Festival, which is to burn towers and smoke piles. Children in the village often pick up tiles and bricks and send them to the threshing floor. Experienced adults build these things into towers, and then fill them with straw and firewood pieces sent by families. When Mother Moon is sacrificed, the things in the tower will be lit. At this time, the children are the most excited, cheering and jumping for joy, sprinkling a handful of salt from time to time, which is very spectacular. Smoke pile means that every household piles straw and firewood in a relatively empty field in the village, which is ignited after Yue Bai, and the flames are soaring. At this time, the moon in the sky is very bright, and the smoke on the ground is a little bit, which is really beautiful.
Put down the gods
Divination is also a mysterious and interesting activity on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival. It is said that when the Mid-Autumn Festival comes, the gods will also go to enjoy the moon. Therefore, on this day, people only need a special ceremony or spell to make gods appear. Therefore, people often carry out mental activities on this day, mainly related to hitting children and inviting baskets. Guan Tong, that is, 12, a boy holding incense, pulled out a rice plant from the paddy field and brought it back to the grain drying field. Everyone sang around: "Turn off, turn off the drama god, and the drama god will appear ... God will play the old man, and God will play the old man. Master and dad go to the ground floor, and master and dad show off. " If you sing this song repeatedly for twenty minutes, a teenager will jump out like a frog and dance to sing "Shut the mussel". After singing for a while, you have to spray water on this person's face to recover. Inviting a basket girl is a woman's game. In a dark room, put a woman's dress around the bamboo basket, and then put a coconut shell in the basket. This is the basket girl. Downward, two people sitting face to face on the ground, holding a bamboo basket with both hands, put a low stool in front of them, and some people sang, "Fan Gu, Pan Shan went over the ridge to smoke vines. Lateng sticks a basket of rice, which is always good. " If there is a God, then kowtowing in this basket can answer some simple questions. Chaozhou people has a long tradition of making moon cakes as sacrifices to the moon and giving gifts to each other. In the Ming Dynasty, Chen's "Donglizhi" said: On August 15th, "People set up cakes, fruits and clothes rings on the moon to worship the moon to invite their aunts." Qing Jiaqing's Chenghai County Records said: "August 15th is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and scholars give moon cakes to each other." "Records of Haiyang County" in Guangxu, Qing Dynasty contains: Mid-Autumn Festival "making reunion cakes,no.' moon cakes'".
Chaoshan people are famous for their cleverness, ingenuity and good business. The moon cakes made by hipsters are called Chaozhou moon cakes, and the locals call them fork sesame cakes. It is famous at home and abroad for its sweetness, crispness, fat but not greasy, and now it has become one of the five famous series of cakes in China (others are Beijing-style moon cakes, Tianjin-style moon cakes, Soviet-style moon cakes and Cantonese-style moon cakes). According to relevant historical records, Mei Lanfang, a master of Peking Opera, was full of praise after tasting Chaozhou bread in Shanghai 1949 Mid-Autumn Festival, and returned a special book "Master of Tea and Food". From 65438 to 0982, Mei Baojiu, the son of Mei Lanfang, tasted Chaozhou bread in Beijing and was full of praise. He gave it back again according to his father's four words, which became an interesting talk in the catering industry.
Chaozhou moon cakes can be divided into different varieties according to fillings, such as mung bean paste moon cakes, black bean paste moon cakes, crystal moon cakes, taro paste moon cakes and double cooked moon cakes. At first, the making of moon cakes was done alone in the family. Later, with the development of economy, it gradually developed into refinement, refinement, stereotype and specialization. There are many manufacturers that produce Chaozhou-style moon cakes. Shantou used to be famous for watching the sun. In recent years, the output and quality of Shantou Candy and Biscuit Food General Factory are very good. The Chaozhou-style moon cakes produced by this factory are golden and bright in color, crispy in skin and thick in meat, smooth in bean paste, sweet in taste, fat but not greasy, and deeply loved by customers at home and abroad. They won the silver prize in the first China Food Expo 1986.
Chaozhou moon cakes are well-known in Yixi, Guiyufang and South Jiangsu. Yixi Pancake is produced in Yixi Town, Chaozhou City. The production of moon cakes in food workshops began during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, especially in Fan workshops. Guiyuba cake, produced in Guiyu Town, Chaoyang, was created by two shops, Xue Yuanhehe and Hou Yuanhe, villagers in Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty, and it can be divided into vegetarian cake and meat pie. As early as the Daoguang period, it was highly respected because of its fine materials, no smell and no greasy. Southern Jiangsu fork sesame seed cake, produced in Chenghai southern Jiangsu area, was first created in the late Qing Dynasty. It is made of pork fork as skin, sweet noodle sauce as stuffing, and refined by printing, barbecue and other processes. The crust of the cake is crisp and thin, and the entrance is pink and fragrant. The filling of the cake is sweet, soft and cold. Products are sold all over the country and are well received.
In recent years, Chaozhou moon cakes, based on the ancient legal system and modern food technology, have been scientifically prepared to suit the tastes of the masses, and have introduced different cakes such as lotus seed paste, five kernels, egg yolk and fruit, which have continuously improved the quality of cakes and made the products more famous and popular.
Third, cut taro.
Chaozhou people worships the Moon Mother in the Mid-Autumn Festival, and there must be taro in the offerings. There is also the custom of peeling taro and eating taro among the people. In this regard, it is also recorded in local chronicles. The Chaozhou Official Records of Qing Shunzhi said: "Playing the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival and peeling taro is called' peeling ghosts'." Qing Jiaqing's Chenghai County Chronicle said: "(Mid-Autumn Festival) peeling cooked taro to eat is called' peeling ghosts'." Qing Qianlong's "Jieyang County Records" contains: "(Mid-Autumn Festival) or eating cooked taro is called' stripping ghosts'".
On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, taro is used to worship Mother Moon. It is said that its origin is unusual. According to legend, after the Yuan soldiers invaded Chaozhou City, the joint household system was implemented, and every three households supported one Yuan soldier. It is also stipulated that the door can't be closed at night, and Yuan Bing can sleep with it, especially if the newly-married wife wants to sleep with Yuan Bing the night before. The people couldn't bear it, so they took advantage of the Mid-Autumn Festival night to worship the moon mother, put a piece of white paper with the word "kill" under the moon cake, and put a plate of taro to worship. When they met Yuan Bing for cake, they all started an uprising. Because the word "taro" of taro is homophonic with the word "Hu" in Chaozhou dialect, the purpose of worshipping taro is to inspire the people to establish the confidence of cutting off the heads of Hu people and defeating Yuan soldiers. As a result, the uprising succeeded as scheduled on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival. Later, hipsters kept the custom of worshipping and peeling taro from generation to generation. Peeling taro is scalping Hu, warning people not to forget the suffering of being ruled by Hu people in the past and enjoy the joy of the success of the uprising.
Today, people in Chaoshan still like to use steamed taro Yue Bai, with loose meat and cracked skin as the top grade, which is commonly known as "smiling taro" in Chaoshan. After the worship, the whole family peeled taro and ate it happily.
Four, burning tower, burning smoke pile
Burning a tower is a folk game that children often play on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival. It is unknown when it originated, but it is also recorded in the county annals of Chaozhou in Qing Dynasty. Qing Shunzhi's Chaozhou Fuzhi said: "Enjoy the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival ... children burn towers for fun." Qing Guangxu's "Chaoyang County Records" said: "(Mid-Autumn Festival) children gather tiles to make small towers and burn them."
On the afternoon of Mid-Autumn Festival, the children collected broken bricks and tiles everywhere and chose a vacant lot to build a tile tower. The small tile tower is two or three feet in diameter, four or five feet high, and the big one is seven or eight feet in diameter and more than ten feet high. The method of stacking is to build a tower foot with a few old corners or stone strips, and then build a tile tower door with a few bricks, and build a layer by layer from the tower foot with old tiles. Pay attention to leave a gap when laying tiles, leave a gap between two tiles, and the second floor will be stacked at the gap of the next floor and laid in turn. When stacking, it gradually shrinks into a tower shape, and finally a spire appears, covered with a brick. Generally, a thick piece of wood is inserted in the center of the tower as the tower core, which can keep the fire burning when burning the tower. When building a tower, you should leave a "stove mouth" under the tower and fill it with firewood. At dusk, the children lit firewood. The raging fire burned until midnight, and went straight into the sky through the cracks in the bricks. At this time, they scattered the prepared rosin, salt, sulfur and firecrackers into the tower, making a crackling sound (like firecrackers) and a blue flame, which was very beautiful.
The Mid-Autumn Festival tile-burning tower has two meanings: one is to commemorate the signal that chaozhou people set off fireworks to kill Yuan soldiers; Second, because tidal tile is homophonic with "ant", burning tile tower is pronounced as "ant" burning tower, and the ants are burned to death. As we all know, burning the tower in Mid-Autumn Festival will burn all the ants in every household, and there will be no ants or reduce the harm of ants in the coming year.
In some places in Chaoshan, there is also the custom of burning towers. Those who burn the whole tower red but don't fall down will win. Jieyang battery and other places have the custom of building bamboo towers, which are tens of feet high. When burning, the whole tower burned out, and the fire was fierce and more spectacular. At present, some tourist attractions, such as Shantou Zhongxin Resort and Chenghai Laiwu Scenic Area, also hold tile-burning activities on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival to attract tourists. However, they developed the original low-grade tile tower into a red brick tower. For example, CITIC Resort asked masons to build more than 2,800 red bricks, and built a brick tower more than 8 meters high, which was cemented with cement mixed with fine sand, like a spectacular building. The tower is built on the beach. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, tourists who watch the burning tower are surrounded by the sea. The red-hot tower and the bright moon and sea complement each other, magnificent and breathtaking.
As for the smoke pile, it is that each household piles straw and firewood in several places in the village to form a hill-like firewood pile. At the end of Yue Bai, they lit the firewood like a brick tower.
Five, the moon girl
In Chaoshan, innocent boys and girls have been pestering their grandparents to tell the story of Moon Mother since they babbled. The moon has become the golden dream of children. So in the Mid-Autumn Festival, adults split bamboo into bamboo sticks, tied them into a washbasin-sized skeleton, and made a full moon with wool paper. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, children lit candles in the belly of their mother moon, carried them on their shoulders and danced in the depths of hazy alleys. Seen from a distance, Mother Moon seems to have arrived on the earth. The golden dream has become a tangible reality for boys and girls. This is the interesting "wandering mother on the moon".
Sixth, look at God.
"Watching God" and "descending God" are just asking God, which is a mysterious and interesting superstitious activity. It is said that on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, the gods will also come out to enjoy the moon. Therefore, on this day, people (especially women, known as "August Joe (crazy) posture mother") can make the gods appear through special ceremonies or spells. So people often invite God on this day,
There are many kinds of "keep the old owner", "watch the death" and "watch the basket" In addition, there are superstitious games played by boys, such as "watching children", "watching toad gods" and "watching monkeys". When observing the gods, we should sing "Please the Divine Comedy", "Urge the Divine Comedy" and "Retreat the Divine Comedy" according to three links. Different gods watch different songs.
Master Luo, also known as "the devil who asks for heaven", takes a woman who can "fall into a trance" as the main body, commonly known as "the same body" (that is, the homonym of the spirit "hiding"), and makes many women recite spells, so that "the same body" enters a state of being half asleep and half awake. Soon, "the same body" was possessed by "ghosts and gods", full of strange words, answering everyone's questions, as if true or false, mysterious.
The way to look at the dead is similar to that of the fallen master Just leave the master to tell some myths, while watching the dead talk nonsense and private affairs. Sometimes, due to sincere words and realistic expressions, family members often cry and the scene becomes gloomy. The dead can also talk to the soul when they fall, and you don't have to invite the soul specially.
Watching the goddess of baskets is a kind of game activity, and it is also necessary to burn incense and recite spells repeatedly in the hall with superstitious spells. Let the two children hold the old bamboo basket and cover it with the old clothes worn by the old woman, and go to the garbage dump to ask God. When god comes, the bamboo basket will shake itself. People ask simple questions, such as number and age, and they all nod their heads to answer.
Watching children play is a game that children often play. The children watching the drama were picked out by teenagers, holding incense, planting incense in the wild paddy field, pulling out a rice plant, planting incense again, and taking it back to the village to bask in the valley. After repeating the spell for more than ten minutes, you will see a teenager jumping up and dancing like a frog. The others jumped up and performed duets, some of which were operas they had seen or improvised. If someone calls his name or sprays water on his face, he can wake up, otherwise he will continue to sing. This custom of babysitting can be seen in rural areas during War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's period.
Activities such as "watching the toad god" and "watching the monkey god" are similar in nature to children watching opera, but they use different spells. When God comes, some people will drill culverts and jump stones like toads, or climb bamboo bushes and trees like monkeys.
Watching god is actually a kind of "hypnosis", which is guided by people's subconscious activities in a semi-sleep state. Although it contains a little scientific truth, it is full of superstition. With the progress of social civilization, witchcraft games such as watching baskets and watching children have been eliminated by the historical trend. But in remote and backward rural areas, superstitious activities such as watching the dead still exist.
Why are there the above customs? According to folklore, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty practiced the system of "three households and one insurance system", that is, it was stipulated that every three households should support one Yuan soldier, only fat, not thin. It is also stipulated that the three houses should not be closed at night, so that Yuan Bing can sleep in which house. What is even more intolerable is who married a daughter-in-law. The bride was only allowed to share a room with Yuan Bing the night before. The common people were bullied to the last straw. On August 15, every household provided a plate of bread and a steamed taro to Yue Bai. It turned out that this was arranged in advance by the insurgents. At first glance, there is a warm and square white paper under the fork cake, which seems to prevent oil stains from coming out. In fact, the word "kill" is written on it, secretly transmitting information. When Yueniang was invited to eat fork baked wheat cake, when she saw the word "kill", men, women and children picked up candlesticks, incense burners, sticks and kitchen knives to kill Yuan Bing, and the result was one. Due to the scattered rural villages, in order to facilitate unified action, we have to burn tile towers and smoke piles. The word "taro" in taro is homophonic with the word "Hu" in Chaozhou dialect. The purpose of worshipping taro is to inspire the people to build up confidence in cutting off the heads of Hu people and defeating Yuan soldiers.
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